U.K.'s Conservatives Want May Out by Next Election, Poll Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Members of Theresa May's Conservative Party don't agree about exactly when the prime minister should quit, but they think it should be before the next election.

May, whose disastrous campaign this year saw the Tories unexpectedly lose seats, said in an interview published Thursday that her decision to call the snap election had caught her own party by surprise and a YouGov Plc poll of Conservative members in Friday's Times suggests they haven't forgiven her.

It found 13 percent said she should quit now or in the next year, 38 percent said she should go after Britain has left the European Union -- scheduled for March 2019 -- and 13 percent said she should go “just before” the next election, due 2022.

Only 29 percent wanted her to fight the next election.

The poll found that the favorite choice to succeed May was Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, named by 23 percent, followed by Scottish party leader Ruth Davidson, who was chosen by 19 percent. Lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg was on 17 percent and Brexit Secretary David Davis on 11 percent. The newspaper didn't give further details of the poll or its methodology.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson