Has Boris Johnson got UK leadership race licked? Poll suggests landslide win over Jeremy Hunt
- The new prime minister is expected to be announced – and then take office – during the week of July 22
Boris Johnson, looking set for a landslide victory over rival Jeremy Hunt in the race to be Britain’s next prime minister, has won the backing of a senior member of the cabinet: Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
Javid, according to The Sunday Times, declared that the former foreign secretary Johnson is “better placed” than Hunt “to deliver what we need to do at this critical time”.
The endorsement followed publication of a YouGov poll Saturday in the Times showing Johnson was backed by 74 per cent of Conservative Party members with Hunt languishing at 26 per cent.
The survey also suggests that the vast majority of the 160,000 grass roots party members who will receive their ballot papers this weekend don’t believe Hunt’s claim that he’s prepared to take Britain out of the European Union without a deal.
Only 27 per cent think Hunt would do so, compared with 90 per cent for Johnson.
In an interview with the Times, Hunt sought to play down perceptions that Johnson’s status as the Brexit referendum’s poster child would influence the outcome of the vote.
