Tory members give Sayeeda Warsi a big thumbs down

By Tim Montgomerie
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Tory members of the Cabinet at the last Party Conference.

ConservativeHome now operates two ways of ranking the Cabinet. The way we have done since 2005, asking Tory members to say whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with each of Cameron's top team and the system we introduced two months ago, asking respondents to name the three most impressive Cabinet ministers. Both methods are useful. The first method means we get a sense of how members think more junior Cabinet ministers like Caroline Spelman and Andrew Mitchell are performing. The trouble with this method is that people might be very satisfied with Sir George Young in terms of the job he's doing but it doesn't tell us if he's seen as one of the 'A team'. Each month we'll alternate between the two methods. This month it's assessing each Cabinet minister and what do we learn?

Here are my headline observations:

• Since we last published satisfaction/ dissatisfaction ratings in early April a lot has happened. The big factors explaining the drop in ratings Clegg and Huhne will be the AV referendum fallout, the NHS row and Mr Huhne's speeding fines controversy. Both have dropped down the league table, particularly Huhne, who now rivals Vince Cable as Mr Unpopular. Danny Alexander is going the other way. Despite his remarks about the 50p tax rate he's now more popular than Hunt, Hammond or Fox. I can't believe that will last but we'll see.
• Amongst the Tory losers there is a big drop for the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox. Is a combination of defence cuts and the controversial Libya campaign hurting him? It can't just be Libya because Hague has dropped too but not by as much.    
• Francis Maude has jumped up the league table. Most of the votes were cast before news was released about his successful crackdown on Whitehall waste. His rise might reflect his prominent media profile during the recent public sector strikes over pensions.
  
• Sayeeda Warsi has sank again and deservedly so. One of the roles of an effective Party Chairman is to be out and about in the media bashing the opposition and defending the Prime Minister. She isn't trusted to do this, however, because of car crash interviews of the kind she sufferered at the hands of Andrew Neil. Her absence was particularly notable during hackgate.
  

CHART: MEMBERS SATISFIED MINUS THOSE DISSATISFIED

1. Iain Duncan Smith: 92% minus 6% = 86%
2. Michael Gove: 86% minus 13% = 73%
3. George Osborne: 84% minus 15% = 69%
4. Theresa May: 82% minus 16% = 66%
   
5. Eric Pickles: 78% minus 20% = 58% 
6. William Hague: 78% minus 21% = 57%
7. Sir George Young: 64% minus 12% = 52%
8. Danny Alexander: 73% minus 24% = 49%
9. Jeremy Hunt: 67% minus 20% = 47%
10. Philip Hammond: 69% minus 24% = 45%
11. Liam Fox: 64% minus 24% = 40%
12. Lord Strathclyde: 53% minus 15% = 38%
13. Francis Maude: 60% minus 25% = 35%
    
14. Andrew Lansley: 65% minus 32% = 33%
15. David Willetts: 60% minus 28% = 32%
    
16. Owen Paterson: 44% minus 12% = 32%
17. Patrick McCloughlin: 45% minus 14% = 31%
    
18. Oliver Letwin: 54% minus 30% = 24%
    
19. Nick Clegg: 53% minus 36% = 17%
20. Cheryl Gillan: 32% minus 21% = 11%
    
21. Andrew Mitchell: 47% minus 39% = 8%
22. Michael Moore: 25% minus 21% = 4%
    
23. Caroline Spelman: 45% minus 43% = 2%
    
24. Ken Clarke: 38% minus 61% = -23%
25. Sayeeda Warsi: 32% minus 57% = -25%
26. Vince Cable: 15% minus 81% = -66%
27. Chris Huhne: 14% minus 85% = -71%

1,821 people took part in the survey from 31st July to 3rd August.