If you were an MP, who would you support in the second round?

In the first round vote 43% of you supported David Cameron; 27% Ken Clarke, 11% David Davis and 19% Liam Fox.

Voting has now closed in this second round survey, as of 11.50am on 20th October.  823 votes were recorded: 59% for David Cameron, 10% for David Davis and 31% for Liam Fox.

Comments

[Matthew Oxley]

I think, using of the words of somebody far more wise than myself, that the Davis camp should now 'Smell the Coffee', there's too much going against him to win I think.

FOX is our man, let's back him.

[Stephen Alley]

It's interesting what the poll results say about the readers of this blog.

[John G]

What were the first survey results please, for interest?

[John G]

Sorry, being a muppet!

[Patrick Higham]

When will this party wake up. The most popular candidate has been eliminated. May not have been popular in the party but where it matters--with the voters he was the best , the only one who worried Labour-----you have just destroyed any chance we had of putting up a decent fight at the next election. Nast party--NO-----Stupid party YES YES YES!!!!

[James M]

I am hoping that it is a DD vs DC final. If we put LF to the final two and something goes wrong for DC with the press, we could end up with a man who rightly or wrongly is protrayed as a lightweight, ultra conservative right winger.

If that happened the party will show it has not changed, the people will think the last couple of months of good publicity and short term boost, is just that short term, and we could face a real lib dem surge in 2009.

Do not get me wrong Liam Fox is a good guy, with some interesting policies. But he has pigeon holed himself to the right in the public and media's mind and this is not good for the party.

It must be a DD vs DC final.

[The Political Thinker]

Patrick Higham,

Yes, Ken Clarke may have been popular among both Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters, however you fail to realise that they would never vote for us regardless of who our leader was.

And personally I believe the best man to lead us to victory is Liam. Not only does he have the right personality, right age and amount of experience, but he also has the right policies: fixing Britain’s broken society, lowering taxes, reducing the size of Government, etc.

James M,

I disagree. I believe the best outcome – as do many – would be David Cameron vs. Liam Fox. Liam is far from the ultra right-wing nutcase portrayed by the mainstream media. Yes, he believes in lower taxes, although at the same time he is very compassionate wanting to fix Britain’s broken society (and it is very broken).

And, something few have commented on is that although Liam supports marriage and stable families, as should anyone, he does not believe the State should moralise on how you live your life or who you go out with or sleep with. As he rightly said, the Churches are there for that. Does this sound like some right-wing religious nutcase to you?

[Kodiak]

Political Thinker,

If we're going to win a general election then we're going to have to attract people who are at least potential labour and lib-dem supporters. We know that Clarke does have support in the Conservative party. You say that he also is popular amongst labour and lib-dem supporters. Your apparent theory that the only place he doesn't have support is in the floating voters that we need just beggars belief.

Not that it matters at this point as he's out of the game, but let's not be silly about it.

[Cutting taxes win elections]

Frankly the vote should be put to the members without MPs having some veto on candidates first. Much as I would not vote for KC the party should have at least been offered the option.

[Sean Fear]

I'd go for Liam Fox now.

[Matthew Oxley]

Ok, this makes it interesting,
Fox+Davis = 43%

If our MP's now do the sensible thing and give us Fox to vote for then a 43%-57% split, at least on here shows there would still be all to play for should Davis supporters then Rally behind Fox.

[James Burdett]

We have Davis switchers, Adam Holloway is now supporting Cameron.

[James M]

Political Thinker - thank you for your reply.

As I said originally, I like Liam Fox as a politician - I believe he is talented and an asset to the party. Equally I agree with many of his policies.

But I think two issues will cause him problems:

1: I do not get the impression he has the gravitas of a potential PM. Cameron does not have loads, but he has more than Fox.

2: As you pointed out the media are protraying him as this right winger, he perhaps is not. The concern is that, while we cannot let the media drive all our decisions - we are at a crucial juncture for the party. If we choose someone like Cameron (or Davis) we might show we have listened and have changed. But to too many people a Fox leadership would imply, again probably wrongly, that we have learnt nothing and want to go chasing off to the so-called "right".

[Andrew]

Cameron's campaign tacticians will probably arrange for Fox to be eliminated next. With an influx of Clarke supporters securing their position, they could quite safely loan 10-15 votes to Davis. Already wounded by a perceived dying campaign, and such a stark contrast in charisma terms to Cameron, he'd then be an easy opponent to beat in the membership ballot.

[John Hustings]

If this unscientific poll is anything to go by at all (I guess not that likely) then Cameron only has an 8% lead over the right-wing candidates combined. That doesn't seem unsurmountable.

I think if it is pointed out what a Blairite Cameron is, and what contempt he has for traditional Conservatives, then that lead could easily swing round.

Here's hoping.

[Cllr Iain Lindley]

If this unscientific poll is anything to go by at all (I guess not that likely) then Cameron only has an 8% lead over the right-wing candidates combined. That doesn't seem unsurmountable.

I think you're assuming too much about the "right" vote. A large chunk of Fox's vote in particular, be it the people who are looking for a more dynamic candidate, or the anti-Davis right (a substantial block certainly amongst MPs!) would tend to Cameron over Davis.

Also the Davis Parliamentary vote has a large number of centrist MPs who thought they were backing the winner. If this is mirrored in the Country, would the Damian Greens and Ian Taylors of the grassroots party really back Fox over Cameron?

[stevie]

clarke may have been more popular according to various opinion polls, but he was the best known leadership candidate.

The true question that should be asked of the public is when did you last care who was the tory leader. The new leader needs to inspire the public to back the Tories at the next council elections and then at the General Election to follow.

DC or LF will offer inspiration DD offers the old right wing grey haired rubbish.

[Mike King]

Could someone please explain how electing David Cameron makes us more accessible? He's the son of a stockbroker, the grandson of a baronet & was educated at Eton.

What the Tory party most needs now is someone with the 'common touch'- David Davis or Liam Fox and some charisma - Liam Fox.