Rishi Sunak plunges to bottom of Tory activists’ Cabinet league table led by former leadership rival Kemi Badenoch while Home Secretary James Cleverly tumbles from top spot over Rwanda deportation flights row

Rishi Sunak’s popularity with Tory members has slumped to an all-time low in a new Cabinet poll as he struggles to get the Tories out of a deepening electoral morass.

The Prime Minister is now bottom of the latest Conservative Home survey of rank-and-file Conservatives, having led it for long periods when he was chancellor.

He has plummeted to -25.4, a drop of more than 30 points during a month dominated by Rwanda deportation flights – or the lack of them, the sacking of Suella Braverman and the Autumn Statement.

He is joined in the negative ratings by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and new Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, on his return to Government. 

In a sign of how much immigration has played a part in the decline, James Cleverly has fallen from first to 11th, losing more than 60 points since swapping the Foreign Office for the maelstrom of the Home Office. He has been criticised for saying the £140million scheme – kyboshed by the Supreme Court last month – was not the ‘be all and end all’ of immigration plans.

The popularity ranking is now led by two of Rishi Sunak’s former leadership rivals from the summer of 2022, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt.

Meanwhile a separate poll has found that Mr Sunak is now polling worse than Liz Truss among 2019 Tory voters.

The popularity ranking is now led by two of Rishi Sunak’s former leadership rivals from the summer of 2022, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt.

The survey by JL Partners for Bloomberg found just 59 per cent are planning to back the party at the next election, down from 63 per cent under his predecessor. Some 15 per cent are now planning to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, though 17 per cent are planning to vote for Labour.

The survey by JL Partners for Bloomberg found just 59 per cent are planning to back the party at the next election, down from 63 per cent under his predecessor.

Some 15 per cent are now planning to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, though 17 per cent are planning to vote for Labour.

Former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke said: ‘Based on my own doorstep experience, there is every reason to believe these voters will return if we deliver on illegal immigration in particular. No love for Starmer or Labour – just desperation for bold action to deliver a fix.’

Mr Sunak has declined to rule out Mr Farage, the reality television star, rejoining the Conservative Party as a member, describing it as a ‘broad church’.

Mr Farage left the Tories in 1992 following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty and has since led Ukip and the Brexit Party, now called Reform UK. He is currently honorary president of Reform UK.

Asked about Boris Johnson’s father Stanley saying the party needed a man of Mr Farage’s ‘talents’, Mr Sunak did not reject the possibility of him returning.

The PM said: ‘Our party has always been a broad church but my focus is consistently on delivering on the things that matter to people.’

Mr Farage attended the Conservative Party conference this year in his capacity as an anchor for GB News.

The former MEP was greeted as a hero by many of the Conservative faithful and spent much of his time posing for selfies and signing autographs, sparking rumours he could return to the Tory fold.

He has joked that he will lead the party in the future and has discussed his potential return while appearing on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

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