Rishi Sunak’s popularity plummets among Tory faithful, survey shows

Boris Johnson ratings climb, as Ben Wallace emerges most popular cabinet minister

Rishi Sunak has seen his popularity plummet with Conservative Party supporters, according to a survey charting the views of the Tory grassroots.

The chancellor is ranked one of the least popular members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet, amid his perceived failure to provide enough support during the cost of living crisis.

Mr Sunak has a lowly net satisfaction rating of only +7.9 in the Conservative Home’s regular ‘cabinet league table’ survey – a table he regularly topped during the early phase of the Covid pandemic.

The chancellor is now second from bottom among cabinet members, ahead of only home secretary Priti Patel who has net satisfaction rating of –13.6.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is back out of negative ratings with the Tory grassroots – appearing mid-table with a net satisfaction of +33 – following months of poor ratings in the wake of the Partygate scandal.

While 93 per cent of Tory supporters took a positive view of the prime minister’s handling of the Ukraine crisis, some 58 per cent took a negative view of the chancellor’s Spring Statement.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace is now the most popular cabinet minister in the league table survey, narrowly ahead of education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan and foreign secretary Liz Truss.

The slump in Mr Sunak’s popularity has also been recorded by polling companies in recent days following his much-criticised Spring Statement.

The senior Conservative MP’s approval rating has dropped from 48 per cent during last year’s Budget to 35 per cent currently, Opinium found.

And Redfield & Wilton recorded its lowest-ever net approval rating for Mr Sunak, with 36 per cent approving of the chancellor, and 35 per cent disapproving of the job he is doing.

Senior backbencher David Davis was among those criticising his failure to use fiscal “headroom” to offer more support, saying: “What the chancellor is doing is making things worse.”

It emerged that a car that Mr Sunak was pictured filling with petrol did not belong to him, while the chancellor appeared to struggle with contactless payment as he tried to buy a can of coke in a clip which went viral.

The chancellor has also come under pressure over his wife Akshata Murthy having a 0.91 per cent stake in IT and services giant Infosys – a company founded by her father which continues to operate in Russia.

The BBC reported on Friday that Infosys is now closing its office in Russia, and attempting to find replacement roles outside of the country for staff employed in Moscow.

Mr Sunak said criticism of his wife over her family company had been unfair and “upsetting” – as he compared the attacks to the Will Smith Oscars slap scandal.

“Both Will Smith and me having our wives attacked – at least I didn’t get up and slap anybody, which is good,” he told Laura Kuenssberg.