The previous record drop was endured by Philip Hammond in the wake of the NICs Budget bungle. He fell from from third place and a score of 74.3 to third from bottom on 9.8 – a slump of 64.5 points. May falls from first and a score of 89.1 into negative territory: -26.1. That’s 137 points shredded in a single go. Party members want her out as leader – though not yet.
Hammond himself falls to -11.5, but he was only on 9.8 pre-election. These are not the ratings that a future party leader is made of.
Pre-election, Patrick McLoughlin was in the top half of the table on 39.6. Now he is down by the best part of 100 points on -29.3, and is bottom of the table. Party member respondents have no confidence in the Party Chairman who presided over the worst Conservative election campaign in living memory.
David Davis is top of the table, and his score is actually up (though only by three points – from 75.4 to 78.4). That’s not at all bad under the current depressed conditions.
Look who’s straight in at number two. There’s Michael Gove on 57.7. His conduct during last year’s leadership election campaign hasn’t stopped him besting all but one of his colleague. Perhaps we should put him back in our future leader survey.
The man whose campaign he deserted, Boris Johnson, is down from 47.9 to 38.8. This is part of a pattern of falls across the board in most cases.
Ruth Davidson is down very slightly, from 86.3 to 84.5, but it scarcely matters. She out-performs every member of the Cabinet, and clearly would be very competitive for a leadership election were she in the Commons. Which she isn’t – despite the yearning of many Tories (south of the border especially).