Tory lead narrows to just four points as Johnson approval rating falls

The Conservative lead over the Labour Party has narrowed from 12 points to just four points in one week, as the Prime Minister’s approval rating has fallen in  the wake of the Dominic Cummings story.

According to a new Opinium poll, the Tory lead has been squeezed considerably after Boris Johnson defended his top adviser from accusations that he had broken coronavirus lockdown rules.

Although Cummings travelled 260 miles with a symptomatic member of his family at the height of the lockdown, and took an additional unnecessary trip, he has refused to apologise or admit a breach.

The new survey for The Observer shows that the Tories have dropped four points compared to last week, now on 43%, while Labour is up four points to 39% – its best since January 2019.

The poll finds that Johnson now has a net disapproval rating, going from 6% net approval last week to 5% net disapproval this week. Only 37% now approve of the job the Prime Minister is doing, down from 45% last week.

Keir Starmer’s approval rating has seen 44% approve, 37% say ‘neither’ and 19% disapprove. The percentage of those approving surpassed the proportion of those saying ‘neither’ two weeks ago.

The public showed net approval ratings for the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis until mid-May, when the levels of disapproval took over. 43% currently disapprove while 37% approve.

On the Cummings story, 96% of those surveyed said they had heard something about the row, and 81% believe that the adviser broke the rules during lockdown. 67% do not believe Cummings’ explanation of events.

With 60% thinking his trip to Durham was unjustified, the poll shows that 42% feel angry towards Cummings about the situation and only 9% feel sympathetic towards the top aide.

68% think that Cummings should resign – including a majority, 52%, of 2019 Conservative voters – and 66% think that the Prime Minister should sack him.

Polling from Savanta ComRes showed earlier this week that the Prime Minister’s personal approval ratings dropped by 20 points in four days to -1% after he claimed Cummings had “acted legally and with integrity”.

Between May 24th and 25th, Keir Starmer saw his ratings rise from 7% to 12% and approval for the government fell below zero to -2% according to the Savanta Comres research.