Tory lead slashed to 4 points from 12 in a week as public punish government

The tumultuous events of last week have taken their toll on the Conservatives, as the latest Opinium poll shows their lead has been slashed from 12 points to 4 points.

This is their lowest lead since August. Now just over two fifths (43 per cent) of voters support the Conservatives compared to 39 per cent who support Labour.

Similarly, Boris Johnson has seen his approval ratings crash from 45 per cent to just 37 per cent with 42 per cent disapproving (up from 36 per cent).

As a result the gap between the numbers who actively approve of Labour leader Keir Starmer and those who actively approve of Boris Johnson has widened, with 44 per cent approving of Starmer vs. 19 per cent disapproving.

Handling of the crisis

For the third week in a row the public disapprove of the government’s handling of the Coronavirus crisis: currently 43 per cent disapprove (same as last week) compared to 37 per cent who approve (down 2 points from last week).

While there is good public support for the government’s test and trace system (63 per cent support while only 11 per cent oppose it), confidence that it will work is in shorter supply. Just under half (45 per cent) are not confident that it will actually work vs. only a fifth (21 per cent) who are confident that the test and trace system will stop a further Coronavirus outbreak.

The Dominic Cummings damage

The vast majority (81 per cent) believe Dominic Cummings broke the rules with his trip to Durham during lockdown, although they are divided on whether he broke the law (39%) or simply broke the guidelines (41 per cent).

Only one in ten think he acted within the rules.

Two thirds (67 per cent) do not believe Mr Cumming’s explanation of the situation as a whole, with the public particularly sceptical about his trip to Barnard Castle (72% do not believe his reasons for doing this). A further 60 per cent think his travel to Durham was unjustified.

Two thirds (68 per cent) think Mr Cummings should resign, and if not, a similar proportion (66 per cent) think Boris Johnson should sack him.

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.