Almost half of the people who voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 now want him to resign – just two years into his premiership.
Labour is celebrating a 10 point lead over the Conservatives, with 41 per cent (+2) vs. 31 per cent (-3) for the Tories, according to the latest Opinium poll.
Meanwhile, the Downing Street party revelations have caused a seismic shift in Boris Johnson’s approval rating, with it falling to -42 per cent.
This is his worst ever approval rating in an Opinium poll, beating the record he set last week (-24 per cent).
This also matches the worst ever approval rating recorded for Theresa May around the time of the 2019 European elections.
Two-thirds (64 per cent) disapprove of the job he is doing as prime minister, with 22 per cent approving (compared to 54 per cent disapproving and 30 per cent approving last week).
Keir Starmer’s approval rating remains stable, with 36 per cent approving vs. 32 per cent disapproving. Just 21 per cent choose Johnson as their preferred prime minister vs. 30 per cent choosing Keir Starmer. Last week Starmer’s figure was also 30 per cent but Johnson’s was at 27 per cent.
Resignation-watch
Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) think Boris Johnson should resign as the Conservative party leader, while 22 per cent believe he should remain as leader of the Conservative party.
Perhaps more damningly, 30 per cent of current Conservative voters and 48 per cent of 2019 Conservative voters think he should resign.
Of the potential successors, only Rishi Sunak achieves a net positive score around making a good prime minister.
Michael Gove and Liz Truss make second and third spot respectively.
“An order of magnitude worse”
Adam Drummond, Head of Political and Social research at Opinium, comments: “While Boris Johnson managed to win the 2019 election with a net negative approval rating, what we’ve seen in the last month is an order of magnitude worse.
“The prime minister has gone from polarising to unifying with almost every demographic or political group disapproving of him. This latest figure is the worst we have ever recorded for him and is up there with how unpopular Theresa May was just before she had to resign.
“While Johnson has been unpopular before, he has usually had his base of people who voted Leave in 2016 and Conservative in 2019 whose positive views counteracted the fact that voters for other parties didn’t like him. Now though, this group are deserting the prime minister as well. 46 per cent of 2019 Conservative Leavers want Johnson to resign vs. 39 per cent wanting him to stay on.
“However, while Labour leads in voting intention, their lead is soft and largely down to Johnson’s unpopularity. When we tested possible successors to Johnson, while most of the cabinet got negative ratings, nearly half of people (45 per cent) say they think Rishi Sunak would be a good prime minister, a figure that is higher than both Labour’s vote share and Keir Starmer’s approval rating.”
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