The image above is, of course, our latest Cabinet league table. Here are some brief thoughts:
- The month of May. She’s already stormed into a 12-point lead in our future leader poll, and now Theresa May has topped our Cabinet League Table for the very first time. Even given the slenderness of her victory – she’s only 0.1 points ahead of the second-placed George Osborne – it’s still a remarkable result. At the end of 2012, May was stuck with a net satisfaction rating of 33 per cent. Only last month, she was in fourth place with a 73-point rating. Now she’s on 84 points. No doubt that speech to the Police Federation has something to do with it.
- Beating Boris… Until a few months ago, it was rare for even one minister to surpass Boris’s satisfaction rating. Now, both May and Osborne are ahead of him.
- …and IDS. The most striking decline is probably Iain Duncan Smith’s. He’s shed 6.6 points since last month, but more than that: I can’t remember him ever finishing as low as fourth before now. Whether this represents spreading dissatisfaction with IDS, or whether it’s just a one-off, we’ll have to wait until next month for a better indication.
- Cameron bounces back. Another good reason to hold off on IDS: last month I noted that Cameron had dropped 12 points on his previous rating, but now he’s practically gained them all back again. I can’t think of any particular, political reason for this, just as I couldn’t last month. Fluctuation is probably just a fundamental quality of these polls.
- Javid on the rise. Last month, Sajid Javid was a new entry in our league table – and he went straight into the top ten with a solid score of 52 points. Now he’s ever higher, on almost 60.
> Over 1050 party members responded to the survey. Their responses are checked against a control panel supplied by YouGov.