Second survey shows Liz Truss ahead of Rishi Sunak in UK PM race

A new survey of members of the governing Conservative Party shows Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is firmly ahead of rival Rishi Sunak in the race to replace Boris Johnson as the British Prime MinisterThe survey of Tory members who will be electing a new leader to take charge at 10 Downing Street from September 5 released on Wednesday night by the Conservative Home website found that 58 per cent of those polled back TrussFormer Chancellor Sunak was found to have the support of 26 per cent while 12 per cent were undecided It is the second poll from Wednesday showing the Cabinet minister widening her lead over the British Indian exminister with an earlier YouGov poll showing Truss was ahead among all age groups across different parts of the country and among men and womenYouGov gives her a 34 point lead which extends on a forced choice to a 38 point lead 69 per cent to 31 per cent Divide our 16 points of dont knows and others evenly between the candidates Truss has a 32 point lead 66 per cent to 34 per cent the ConservativeHome survey claimsAll in all Sunak needs a massive gamechanger to turn this contest round if our new findings and YouGovs are right And its very difficult to see where that could come from it notesThe latest findings come as Sunak faced a fresh blow with another former candidate and senior Tory Sajid Javid endorsing Truss in the race for her bold agendaThe Pakistaniorigin former Health Secretary and also Sunaks former boss in the UK Treasury when he was the Chancellor writes in The Times that a refusal to cut taxes meant the UK risks sleepwalking into a hightax lowgrowth economy a reference to Sunaks tax strategySome claim that tax cuts can only come once we have growth I believe the exact opposite iquest tax cuts are a prerequisite for growth writes JavidTax cuts now are essential There are no riskfree options in government However in my view not cutting taxes carries an even greater risk he saidLast month Javid had launched a leadership bid of his own for the top job on a platform of swift tax cuts but pulled out after he failed to win enough nominations from Tory MPs to go through to the first round of votingIt was his resignation from Johnsons Cabinet that came first followed soon after by Sunak and then several other ministers that forced the outgoing prime ministers hand to announce his resignation and trigger a Tory leadership electionTruss now has the backing of most former candidates including Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Tory backbencher Tom TugendhatAn estimated 180000 party members started receiving their ballot papers this week and have the option of a postal or online ballot which must be registered by the evening of September 2 The votes will then be counted by the Conservative Campaign Headquarters CCHQ and results declared on September 5This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever