Downing Street race: Liz Truss confirmed in the polls despite a first about-face

Liz Truss was confirmed by the polls on Tuesday August 2 in her position as the favorite to succeed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, despite the outcry caused by the announcement and then the abandonment of a promise of massive cuts in the salaries of officials.

According to a poll published Tuesday by the YouGov institute for

newspaper , the 47-year-old minister has further widened the gap with her rival Rishi Sunak.

60% of Conservative voters polled over the past five days said they would vote for her, against only 26% for the former finance minister.

These latest figures contradict a previous private poll by the British daily, which gave Liz Truss the winner just five small points ahead of Mr Sunak earlier on Tuesday.

Read alsoLiz Truss: “The EU does not realize how serious the situation in Northern Ireland is”

This new poll very favorable for the head of diplomacy comes as she caused an uproar on Monday evening by announcing a plan of 8.8 billion pounds (10.5 billion euros) in savings in sector wages public, indexing them to the cost of living in each region.

Some conservatives felt that these cuts would make nurses, police officers or even teachers poorer in already disadvantaged regions.

Tuesday morning, just twelve hours after announcing her project, Liz Truss backtracked by abandoning the idea, her spokesperson denouncing "

" of the plan.

“

,” the spokeswoman confirmed: “

.”

The project presented Monday evening spoke well of the creation of “

” outside London.

According to Rishi Sunak's campaign team, such a plan would eat into the salaries of nearly six million public sector workers.

While the Conservatives are often in favor of cuts to public services, they won the 2019 legislative elections with the promise of "

" for the benefit of disadvantaged regions, particularly in the north of England, where they recorded spectacular electoral progress.

Members of the Conservative Party begin voting this week to elect who will replace Boris Johnson, who resigned in early July after a series of scandals.

This vote takes place until September 2 by correspondence.

The announcement of the result is expected for September 5.

Liz Truss has received the support of several figures in her party in recent days and that of the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, a daily influential with the conservative electorate.