YouGov polls puts Liz Truss 34 points ahead of Rishi Sunak in Tory leadership race
A fresh poll puts Liz Truss firmly in first place in the race to become the UK's next Prime Minister.
Rishi Sunak appears to have lost ground in the Tory leadership battle, according to YouGov's latest poll.
It puts Ms Truss well ahead of her rival in support from Conservative party members, with her lead increasing to 34 points.
It shows 60% of the party members polled between July 29 and August 2 say they intend to vote for the Foreign Secretary, up from 49% since the period July 20 to 21 when the rivals first made the cut for the final two.
Support for Mr Sunak, the former chancellor, has dropped from 31% to 26% according to YouGov, while the rest of the 1,043 Conservative party members polled say they are undecided or will not vote.
In a further blow to Mr Sunak, YouGov data also showed 83% of those who currently say they intend to vote for Ms Truss also say they have made up their mind.
Just 17% say they might still change their mind while 29% of Mr Sunak’s supporters say they might still vote differently.
But the Sunak campaign will be hoping the additional time to make their case before the first votes are cast will fall in their favour.
The Truss campaign spent Tuesday performing damage control after making a u-turn on a flagship policy to slash £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside London.
The announcement on Monday night met fierce opposition from senior Conservatives who said that it would be “levelling down” the nation by leaving nurses, police officers and teachers worse off.
Ms Truss insisted her policy had been “misrepresented” after coming under fire.
She told ITV News on Tuesday she had "no intention to affect teachers and nurses".
"I don't want people to be concerned, so I'm being very clear, we will not be going ahead with the regional pay board...I'm being honest that there were concerns expressed," she added.
"I believe my policy was being misinterpreted, I want to be clear with the public, that I will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards. I'm somebody who is honest and up front and I do what I say I will do and I'm being clear I will not be doing that."
Previously, a release issued by the foreign secretary's team, said a "Truss government will introduce Regional Pay Boards so pay accurately reflects where civil servants work."
Liz Truss speaks to ITV News about the controversial policy- insisting it was 'misrepresented'.
"Truss’s government could save billions a year by replacing National Pay Boards with Regional Pay Boards. This will make it easier to adjust officials’ pay, ensuring it accurately reflects where they work and stops the crowding out of local businesses that can not compete with public sector pay," the proposal had stated.
Former chief whip Mark Harper told Ms Truss to stop “blaming journalists – reporting what a press release says isn’t ‘wilful misrepresentation’”.
“So this U-turn has wiped out £8.8 billion in savings. Where are these going to come from now?” the Tory MP for the Forest of Dean said.
“An economic policy that can’t be paid for isn’t very Conservative. Mrs Thatcher would be livid.”
Meanwhile, reports in the Telegraph and BBC Newsnight overnight suggested the leadership ballot could be affected by delays due to a 'security issue.'
An NCSC spokesperson said: “Defending UK democratic and electoral processes is a priority for the NCSC and we work closely with all parliamentary political parties, local authorities and MPs to provide cyber security guidance and support.
“As you would expect from the UK’s national cyber security authority we provided advice to the Conservative Party on security considerations for online leadership voting.”
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