James Cleverly and Dame Priti Patel are the only candidates whose names are widely recognised, according to a BMG Research poll for [I].
Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, the two favourites in the race, are familiar to fewer than half of voters with Tom Tugendhat and Mel Stride also relatively little known, the survey found.
Asked who they would like to see win the leadership election which concludes in November, two thirds of the public said they did not know or had no preference – suggesting most voters are not engaging with the process.
Even among Conservative voters, almost half declined to name a preferred candidate from the six contenders. Mr Cleverly, the former Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, came out top among Tories with 15 per cent of the votes and ex-Security Minister Mr Tugendhat was second on 12 per cent. No other candidate attracted as much as 10 per cent support from Conservative backers.
Among voters as a whole, the most popular candidate was Mr Cleverly with 8 per cent, with 61 per cent saying they had heard of him, behind only Dame Priti on 82 per cent name recognition. 49 per cent knew of Ms Badenoch, the former Business Secretary, 44 per cent recognised Mr Tugendhat, 42 per cent had heard of ex-Immigration Minister Mr Jenrick, and just 30 per cent said they could identify Mr Stride, the former Work and Pensions Secretary who is the dark horse in the contest.
[…]
A poll of members by the website Conservative Home last week found that Ms Badenoch is the favourite among activists with the support of 38 per cent, followed by Mr Jenrick on 19 per cent.
The fact that Priti Patel is a Dame is abhorrent.