Confidence in Westminster’s ability to overcome coronavirus crisis plummets

Since British Prime Minister Boris Johnson moved to ease lockdown restrictions, more people in the UK now disapprove than approve of Westminster’s handling of the pandemic, a recent poll carried out by Opinium research shows.

The survey of 2,005 adults carried out this week found approval ratings had dropped to 39 percent from 48 percent a week earlier, down from a high of 65 percent after lockdown was introduced. Disapproval also rose by six points to 42 percent.

In contrast, net approval ratings for Labour party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, left Johnson in the dust, with 35 percent of the public backing his party’s opposition to the government, 20 percent disapproving, and a third remaining neutral.

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This was the same week in which Sir Keir castigated the prime minister over deaths in care homes, which account for 40 percent of the nearly 35,000 fatalities recognized in the official UK toll – which is topped globally only by the US.

“In part this [drop in approval] was likely inevitable as the relatively simple and almost unanimous decision to lockdown has given way to much more contestable decisions about how and when to open up,” said Opinium’s head of political polling, Adam Drummond.

“We have gone from a very simple and clearly understood message to a more nuanced situation with more confused messaging and a sense that the government don’t have as firm a grip on the situation as voters would like.”

The poll has revealed that most English adults found the government’s new slogan of “Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” to be unclear.

The Covid Alert System scale, which ministers trumpet as a key part of the plan to ease lockdown restrictions, has proven to be anything but clear with less than a third of those surveyed able to correctly identify where the UK currently sits on the new system.

In spite of the apparent confusion, the majority of English adults could correctly identify the updated advice given by the Prime Minister on Sunday, with 76 percent correctly identifying the advice on exercising, 69 percent on meeting others, and 51 percent on going into work.

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Elsewhere it was found that not much stock is put into Johnson’s insistence the public use its “good British common sense” over lockdown rules, with nearly nine in 10 respondents trusting their own judgement, but only 34 percent trusting that of their fellow Britons.

The prime minister, attempting to give the ailing economy a boost in the face of an impending recession and urging those who cannot work from home to return to work, has made unions furious amid concerns over the apparently disproportionate threat to lower income workers, childcare issues and public transport.

Opinium’s research suggested that a third of those asked to return to work did not feel assured their workplace is Covid-secure this week, and nearly a third feared for their safety while travelling to work.

Only one in seven respondents indicated they would feel comfortable travelling by train or bus.

Of those taking part in the poll, more than a quarter have said they would feel uncomfortable using any of the listed forms of public transport again until a vaccine is available, including trains, buses, metro systems or planes.

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