Activists Want Boris As Next Tory Leader

Conservative Party members favour Boris Johnson to be their next leader ahead of William Hague and George Osborne, a new poll has revealed.

Nearly half of those surveyed by the Conservative Home website said they would like David Cameron to lead the party at the next election.

But on the question of his successor, grassroots support for the Chancellor appears to have collapsed - with only 2% backing Mr Osborne.

Instead, 32% of the 1,419 activists polled favoured the Mayor of London, followed by Mr Hague on 24% and Education Secretary Michael Gove on 19%.

Support for other party heavyweights also appears to have faded, with only 3% backing former defence secretary Liam Fox and just 2% supporting Home Secretary Theresa May.

While the results might be good reading for Mr Johnson, Conservative Home editor Tim Montgomerie said the London Mayor still has many sceptics within the party.

"Tory MPs still wonder if he's serious enough. The stuff that works at a Hyde Park rally does not work at the Commons dispatch box," he wrote on the website.

He added: "At the moment the personality is too much of the offering. That's fine for being Mayor but not for being PM."

Mr Johnson, who has played a key role in staging the Olympics in the capital, recently won a second four-year term as London Mayor which is due to come to an end in 2016.

He is known to be highly-ambitious but said after the victory this May that people could "take it for granted" that he would not stand as an MP at the general election in 2015.

Beyond that, he could stage a return to frontline national politics.

The lack of support for the Chancellor comes after last week's shock GDP figures revealed the extent of the recession biting Britain.

The poll puts fresh pressure on Mr Osborne, who has faced heavy criticism after his Budget in March led to a series of U-turns.

There has been speculation the Chancellor, who is also in charge of political strategy in Downing Street, could be moved from the Treasury in the reshuffle expected in September but this is considered highly unlikely.