LONDON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Boris Johnson, front runner in the race to be Britain's next prime minister, would win a 40-seat majority in a general election if he wins the keys to 10 Downing Street, a new poll revealed Monday night.
The opinion poll by ComRes, commissioned in London by the Daily Telegraph, puts the Conservatives with 345 Members of Parliament (MPs) in a general election if Johnson beats foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in the contest to elect a successor to Theresa May. The main opposition Labour Party would win 207 seats, the poll suggests.
The poll also showed that a Conservative party led by Hunt would leave Labour with the largest number of MPs, even though a larger number of people polled thought Hunt would make a better prime minister than Johnson.
Under a British government led by Hunt the poll predicted that the newly formed Brexit Party would win 23 MPs in the House of Commons, compared to no Brexit Party MPs if Johnson wins.
Hunt also polled better when people were asked who was more likely to best represent Britain on the world stage.
Johnson, though, by a margin of 64 to 36 was more trusted to deliver Brexit by Oct. 31, taking Britain out of the European Union more than three years after the 2016 referendum.
Around 160,000 members of the governing Conservative Party are in the process of choosing between Hunt and Johnson to determine their next leader. The result will be announced later this month.
Currently Theresa May is caretaker of a minority Conservative government, heading a party bitterly divided over EU membership. The leader of the governing party automatically becomes prime minister.
