Credit;PA
After another bad week at the office the Conservatives’ lead has fallen further, and they are now ahead of Labour by just 3 points, according to the latest polling.
The Conservatives vote share remains steady at 43 per cent, while Labour have edged up 1 point to 40 per cent this week.
This is the highest Labour vote share since January 2019, and, the lowest Conservative lead since Boris Johnson became prime minister.
To make matters worse, public discontent at the government’s handling of the crisis has begun to rise again: now just under half (47 per cent) disapprove of the way the Conservatives have dealt with the crisis (up 4 points), while only a third (34 per cent) approve (down 3 points from last week).
Almost three in five (57 per cent) think the government is bringing the UK out of lockdown too fast, while just 21 per cent think we are moving at the right pace, and 13 per cent think we are going too slowly.
Just over half (56 per cent) also expect lockdown measures to have to be reimposed at some point before a vaccine becomes available.
Half of Brits believe the government is underreacting to the situation, whereas only 30 per cent think they are acting proportionally.
Only 36 per cent say they have confidence in the government’s ability to handle the situation vs. 44 per cent who do not.
More than two in five (44 per cent) disapprove of the way Boris Johnson is acting as prime minister, an increase of 2 points from last week.
This is compared to 37 per cent who approve of his actions.
Keir Starmer’s rating remains at 45 per cent approving with 17 per cent disapproving.
Seven in ten (71 per cent) think Dominic Cummings should be sacked, rising slightly from 68 per cent last week. Only a fifth think he shouldn’t be sacked.
As a result of Cummings’ actions, two thirds now believe that the public are more likely to break the rules, up from 58 per cent last week.
Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, comments: “The public are starting to lose confidence in the government’s ability to handle the crisis, approval of how they are handling things has dropped from 65 per cent at the beginning of lockdown to just 34 per cent today.
“Public appetite for lifting the lockdown measures remains minimal with even Conservative voters more likely to say that things are being released too quickly than too slowly.
“Meanwhile Keir Starmer’s “constructive opposition” positioning is continuing to pay off with the Labour leader drawing almost level with Boris Johnson on the ‘best prime minister’ question as well as overtaking the PM on a series of leadership attributes such as competence and trustworthiness.”
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