More people think Boris Johnson should resign than think he should stay in post and Labour has a narrow lead over the Tories, according to polling.
Polling by Opinium of 2,003 people online from January 6th to January 7th for the left-wing Observer — sister paper to the Guardian — found 43 per cent of respondents think Prime Minister Johnson should step down — not an outright majority but more than the 40 per cent who believe he should stay in post.
His overall approval rating was also down slightly, from 39 per cent to 38 per cent, and his disapproval rating also up by a similar one-point jump, from 44 per cent to 45 per cent.
Confidence in Johnson among Tory voters remained strong, however, with 87 per cent wanting him to stay.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, in contrast, had 52 per cent overall support for staying in post, compared to 20 per cent support for resignation — and his left-liberal party now leads the Tories overall, if narrowly, at 40 per cent to 39 per cent.
“Nine months into the Coronavirus crisis, a majority of voters think the government has made some critical mistakes, often doing too little too late to tackle the virus, and putting out confusing and often contradictory messaging,” wrote James Crouch, senior researcher at Opinium, in an article posted on the polling firm’s website.
Crouch added that the Tory government was at least “considered to have successfully minimised the hardship faced by individuals and families” — despite mass job losses in sectors such as hospitality and many small and medium-sized businesses having to close down or being in dire straits — and that it “being one of the first countries to approve a vaccine” for the Wuhan virus may prove something of a saving grace.
He warned, however, that the “bombshell that No 10 faces is the new more virulent strain of the virus… Any perceived failings in the roll out, in what we can expect to be an incredibly difficult winter, is likely to damage the government’s last vestiges of support.”