But in a sign those in the party are not entirely happy with any of the candidates on offer the option to pick “other” got 18 per cent of the vote.
What the findings do suggest is that Mr Johnson’s incendiary interventions on Brexit in the past few weeks have not harmed his chances of taking over from the Prime Minister.
And given that he was on seven per cent in last month’s poll suggests activists were pleased with his more optimistic vision of a post-Brexit Britain and backed his EU “red lines” published in The Sun.
They have triggered a huge backlash from Tory MPs and his Cabinet colleagues in a row that has threatened to overshadow the party conference in Manchester this week.
Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered a thinly-veiled attack on Mr Johnson by repeatedly saying that no ministers were “unsackable”.
And Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson aimed a pointed jibe at Mr Johnson, and suggested if she was PM then she would have sacked Mr Johnson.
She told a fringe event yesterday: “I have a lot of MSPs at this conference – if any of you think about writing anything without telling me that runs counter to Conservative policy, you're out on your ear because nobody is unsackable.”
The hugely popular figure doesn't appear in the current rankings, but has the highest approval of any Tory figure in ConservativeHome's approval ratings.
