Liz Truss’s attempt at a comeback is damaging the Conservative Party brand, pollsters have said, worsening the fallout from her brief tenure as prime minister.
Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the former prime minister was proving problematic for Rishi Sunak as he attempts to restore political credibility to the Tories ahead of the next general election.
“Leaders that are brought down or resign not of their own volition tend to be a bit of a problem,” he told i.
“That said, the toxic effect of Liz Truss is already well and truly baked into the figures. She did the damage when she was prime minister.”
The polling guru noted that the Conservatives were 10 points behind Labour when Ms Truss entered No 10, with the party dropping 30 points behind when she resigned.
The Tories have clawed back some support under Mr Sunak’s leadership and now poll around 20 points behind the Opposition, but the Prime Minister’s personal popularity ratings have slipped throughout his premiership.
Sir John added: “Sunak’s fundamental problems are that he doesn’t have that much authority because he’s an unelected leader and that he leads a party that finds itself deeply concerned about its electoral future and deeply concerned about its ideological direction. Those were all in place before Liz Truss penned any one of her 4,000 words on Sunday.”
Ms Truss returned to frontline politics over the weekend when she wrote a 4,000-word opinion piece
defending her failed economic vision.
In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Truss said she was not “blameless” for the economic disaster following the mini-Budget last September, but insisted she was “not given a realistic chance” because economic orthodoxy in Britain has drifted “leftwards”.
Pollsters said her intervention has highlighted divisions within the Conservatives and reminded voters of turmoil during her government.
Chris Hopkins, political research director at polling firm Savanta, said the public has credited Mr Sunak with a more cautious approach in office. However, “the public still don’t like Truss, they haven’t forgiven her, and they haven’t forgiven Johnson either.”
“Them hanging around isn’t giving Sunak any space to try and carve out a niche for himself or to convince voters that he is different to what’s come before,” he told i.
He suggested that the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi and current investigation into Dominic Raab over bullying allegations have exacerbated perceptions of “Tory sleaze” that Mr Sunak inherited from his predecessors.
“Sunak wanted to present a cultural change – ‘No more sleaze, we’re going to be open, we’re going to have integrity’. But he hasn’t managed to do that either. There have been two ministerial resignations and a sacking,” he said.
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Matthew Goodwin, professor of political science at the University of Kent, told i: “Voters don’t like divided political parties, so anything that underlines the fact that the Conservative Party is divided either ideologically or through personality disputes, it does not help that party at elections.
“Partygate cost them about six points and then Truss happened, which cost them another 10 points or so. It’s why Sunak has been struggling so much to resurrect it — it’s been the political equivalent of turning around the Titanic. But a comeback from Liz Truss isn’t going to help.”
Mr Goodwin said the Prime Minister has “been trying to regain the narrative” by demonstrating his political distance from his predecessors in high-profile interviews, and would likely be disgruntled about Ms Truss’s re-emergence.
“He’s been on TV shows like Piers Morgan’s and he’s also been trying to use the migration question to reassert his premiership,” he told i.
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“But the more that Johnson and Truss pop up, the more they’re going to remind the electorate of this remarkably turbulent, chaotic and divided time in British politics. And that is not going to help the Conservatives – it’s going to help Labour.”
It comes as recent appearances by Mr Johnson on both US and UK television have fostered speculation of another potential comeback ahead of the next general election, which will take place in less than two years’ time.
In a recent interview on TalkTV with Nadine Dorries, one of his closest supporters, Mr Johnson piled pressure on Mr Sunak over tax. He also used an appearance on a US talk show last week to criticise the Prime Minister’s decision not to send aircraft to defend Ukraine.
Mr Goodwin said the return of both Mr Johnson and Ms Truss would make the Prime Minister more vulnerable to attacks on both his policies and the strength of the Conservative Party as a whole.
“The deck is really already stacked against the Conservatives. Anything that is distracting away from Rishi Sunak’s quest to provide a coherent, appealing message to the country is not really what the Tory party needs at the moment,” he said.
“Sunak and his team will be hoping that his predecessors can remain quiet. I don’t think that will happen — I think the local elections will be incredibly difficult for the Conservatives and I suspect that will then set the stage for a very divisive summer.”
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Mr Hopkins said recent focus groups conducted by Savanta had repeatedly highlighted the mood among members of the public that Mr Sunak could steady the ship until the next general election, but that the Tories were doomed to fail.
“They kind of see him as a bit of a caretaker — they think that he’s not going to do anything truly disastrous in between now and when they get a chance to democratically get rid of the party,” he said.
“Sunak feels very much like the noble captain going down with his ship — but it’s not really his fault, and Truss’s comeback serves as a reminder of that.”