Tory voters think Penny Mordaunt is the only candidate that could beat Sir Keir Starmer at the next election, a new poll suggests.
The leader of the Commons was the only candidate 2019 Conservative voters thought would give the party an improved chance of winning the next election.
The survey, conducted by Deltapoll and Helm Partners Ltd, saw 38 per cent agree with the statement that the party would have a better chance of winning the election with Mordaunt as leader than Mr Sunak, while 31 per cent disagreed.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch was seen to be a better choice than Sunak by just 17 per cent of respondents. She had a net score of minus 20.
Tory voters think Penny Mordaunt is the only candidate that could beat Sir Keir Starmer at the next election, a new poll suggests
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Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman had a net score of minus 29.
However, among those intending to back Reform UK at the next election, she had a net score of 43 - suggesting those who intend to back Reform believe Braverman would give the party a better chance of winning a fifth term than Sunak.
Among 2019 Conservative voters, Lord Cameron had a net score of minus 10, Jeremy Hunt minus 20 and former PM Liz Truss minus 69.
The poll, which spoke to 1,500 people, saw 54 per cent say they plan to vote for the Tories again. 14 per cent said they intend to switch to Labour and 13 per cent to Reform.
Greg Cook, the associate senior counsel at Helm Partners, told the Telegraph: "Our poll starkly quantifies the fragmentation of the Conservatives’ winning coalition from 2019, which resulted in the collapse of their support in Kingswood and Wellingborough.
"But the number who have switched to Labour is far short of what Keir Starmer needs to win an overall majority, and Labour is relying on winning over more undecided votes and continued Tory losses to Reform.
"Sunak faces a dilemma – there is a clear strategy which might appeal to those Reform switchers, but it is so at odds with the mainstream view among the rest of the Tory coalition that its adoption is likely to lead to further losses to Labour, which would be much more damaging."
A separate poll published earlier this week suggested Boris Johnson could regain the votes of a group seen as the "lost Conservatives" if he led the Tory party into the next election.
The survey suggested he is the only leading Tory politician who would perform better than the curent PM against the Labour leader.
Johnson would outperform 10 other Tories, including Foreign Secretary and former Prime Minister Lord Caermon and Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch.
The polling found that 28 per cent of people would vote for Johnson over Starmer. While 25 per cent said they would vote for Sunak over the Labour leader.
Some 38 per cent of 2019 Tory voters agreed that the party would have a better chance of winning with the Commons Leader at the helm
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More than half of those who voted for the Conservatives in 2019 and have since decided to vote for a different party, but haven’t decided which, said they would back the Tories at the next election if Johnson were in charge.
Some 52 per cent said they would vote for Johnson over the Labour leader, compared to just 39 per cent who said they would vote for Sunak over the Labour leader.
The polling, conducted by Whitestone Insight between Jan 23 and Feb 7, surveyed 13,534 British adults online.
Lady McAlpine, who commissioned the polling, claimed the Conservative Party could beat Labour if it became a "new squeaky clean" party led by Johnson.
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Speaking about the current state of the party, she said: "If we have the brains, they’re not evident and that’s because the personality is not there, the charisma is not there. To be a leader, you have to have enormous charisma to be a good leader.”
She added: “It doesn’t matter where Boris goes in the world. People like him and therefore listen to him. They don’t like you, they don’t listen to you.”
Sunak suffered a bruising defeat last week, losing by-elections in both Wellingborough and Kingswood - a defeat which came after months of devastating polling.