Jeremy Hunt has secured a surprise surge in popularity since the disastrous Tory election result, as he assumes the role of de facto leader of the opposition against Rachel Reeves' hated economic policies.
A new survey of Tory members by the Conservative Home website has found that Mr Hunt is now the second most popular member of the shadow cabinet, surging from among the least popular top Tories prior to the election.
In May, the then-Chancellor was languishing on -22 according to the ConHome survey of party members.
However just a few months later, Mr Hunt has shot up to +27.3 thanks to his energetic work tearing apart Labour's claims that they inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances.
The score now sees him in second place, behind Kemi Badenoch whose leadership ambitions will be boosted by her strong lead among all other shadow cabinet members.
The shadow housing and local government secretary sits comfortably ahead on +45.1%.
Meanwhile James Cleverly comes in third, only just behind Mr Hunt, on 26.3%.
Other leadership contenders' rankings include Tom Tugendhat on 14.2% and Mel Stride on 14%.
Robert Jenrick and Priti Patel are not members of the shadow Cabinet, so did not receive ratings.
Meanwhile Rishi Sunak finds himself at the second-bottom of the ranking, only ahead of shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell.
ConHome's Henry Hill said that the huge boost for Mr Hunt is a 'big surprise', explaining: “This score makes sense if a strict assessment of the Shadow Chancellor's performance in his new office”.
“Hunt has been energetic in taking the fight to Rachel Reeves over her spurious claim to have discovered a ~£22bn black hole in the public finances, and there is no doubt that his previous experience at the Treasury has helped.
“Shadow ministers are also simply afforded fewer opportunities to distinguish themselves than their luminate counterparts, so we might expect stories like this to have a larger impact on the League Table going forward, with people thrust into the spotlight depending on where the government presents a vulnerability. .
“But recall that in May, the then-Chancellor's score was -22. He was the second-most unpopular member of an historically (by our panel's reckoning) unpopular government, and the intervening election campaign did not exactly cover the senior members of that government in glory.”
Last Friday a Conservative Home leadership poll of Tory members found Ms Badenoch ahead on 33%, followed by Robert Jenrick on 19%, both of whom were up around 7 points each.
By contrast centrist candidate Tom Tugendhat is down 3 points to 10%, tied with Mr Cleverly.