Voters prefer Boris Johnson to George Osborne as David Cameron’s successor, according to a ComRes poll for The Independent on Sunday, shared with the Sunday Mirror. The Mayor of London would make a better prime minister than the Chancellor, say 39 per cent, as against 33 per cent who say Mr Osborne would be better – the rest say they don’t know.

But Conservative voters prefer Mr Osborne, by 48 per cent to 34 per cent, which suggests that he has the advantage among party members who will have the final say in choosing the next Conservative Party leader. Much of Mr Johnson’s support comes from Labour voters, who prefer him by 44 per cent to 27 per cent, suggesting that he would be better at expanding the Tories’ support.

As Mr Johnson, who gave a notably Eurosceptic speech to the Tories’ annual conference this month, ponders his position on the European referendum, the poll finds that the result could be close. By a margin of 40 per cent to 37 per cent, voters expect the outcome will be that Britain stays in the EU.

The poll finds that the party conference season had little effect on voters. The Conservatives retain a commanding lead of 13 points, with no party’s level of support significantly changed from last month.

Voting intention:

Con 42%

Lab 29% (-1)

UKIP 13%

Lib Dem 7%

Green 3%

All figures unchanged since last month, apart from Labour.

And we also asked the following:

(The HS2 question shows the change since 2011.)