Tory MPs’ favourite Rishi Sunak faces challenge to win over party members

Analysis: missteps mean he trails Liz Truss in polls, and he will need to sell himself as a safer electoral bet

Rishi Sunak may have won the leadership ballot among Tory MPs but he will now face a different audience, who have so far seemed largely immune to his charms - 160,000-odd grassroots Conservative members.

Sunak has consistently struggled in polling among party activists. The latest ConservativeHome survey last weekend showed him losing a head-to-head battle with Truss by 42% to her 49%. YouGov polling of Conservative members showed him trailing the foreign secretary by an even wider margin, 54% to 35%.