Candidate Six: Liz Truss
Run-off scores –
–
Liz Truss: 38 per cent.
Penny Mordaunt: 44 per cent.
Liz Truss: 19 per cent.
(779 votes cast)
–
Liz Truss: 33 per cent.
Ben Wallace: 51 per cent.
Don’t know: 16 per cent.
(777 votes cast)
–
These play-off summaries have perhaps neglected the likelihood of those listed making the final stage of any contest in the first place.
So, for example, either Jeremy Hunt or Tom Tugendhat might make it because of the strength of the centre-left of the Party during the Parliamentary stage of the ballot…
…But if this survey is right neither of them stand much of a chance, at least as matters stand, against a candidate of the centre-right or even of the harder right at the membership stage.
But if having a base makes a candidate, then Liz Truss is a very strong one indeed in the event of an election. For she looks well placed to pick up right-of-centre votes, both among MPs and activists.
As we have seen, the Foreign Secretary is a bit of a marmite candidate, but she is extremely well placed if there is a vacancy.
