Double poll boost for Clarke
Two out of five voters have backed Kenneth Clarke as the right man to lead the Conservative party and take on the government, according to a new poll.
The ICM survey for Newsnight found the former chancellor commanding four times as much support than his closest rival.
Only ten per cent backed shadow home secretary David Davis, while four per cent sided with shadow education secretary David Cameron and shadow work and pensions secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
On one per cent less was shadow foreign secretary Liam Fox, with shadow trade and industry secretary David Willetts bringing up the tail on two per cent.
Twenty per cent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote Tory if Mr Clarke were leader. Less than one in ten (eight per cent) said they would be less likely to do so.
A third said they had no preference for any of the candidates and four per cent said none of the six named candidates would be best.
Only seven per cent said they would be more likely to vote Tory if Mr Davis, who is currently the frontrunner, were leader. One in ten said they would be less inclined to do so.
The poll will be read as a severe blow to Mr Davis and a major boost to Mr Clarke, despite Lord Tebbit branding him “lazy” at the weekend.
The poll also found 65-year-old Mr Clarke more likely to bring floating voters back to the Tory fold than the other candidates.
Last night, Mr Clarke’s spokesman described the poll as “overwhelmingly fantastic”, adding Mr Clarke was delighted he commanded such strong support among the electorate. The charismatic pro-European has twice fought leadership contests, losing both times.
A supporter of David Cameron, 38, said Mr Clarke’s strong showing was unsurprising given his “recognition factor”.
Andrew Robothan MP told the BBC: “We need to appeal to younger people who have not voted Conservative, not people of my age, 54, who already vote predominantly Conservative.”
In a Populus poll for the Times, taken over the same period, Mr Clarke was also the popular choice among voters.
The poll, broadly consistent with the ICM poll, saw Mr Clarke win 41 per cent of the public’s support when asked who would make the best leader for the Tories. The figure was up from his 29 per cent rating in July.
Mr Davis, meanwhile, found favour with just ten per cent of all voters, down two points.
