Readers rap Boris over crisis
Majority critical of handling of the coronavirus lockdown
As different parts of the UK emerge from the lockdown at different speeds, a poll of almost 12,000 readers of our newspapers and websites has revealed that a majority believe that Boris Johnson has not handled the coronavirus crisis well.
The survey, carried out by JPIMedia titles across the UK over the weekend, asked our readers a series of questions about the lockdown, and how the different administrations have responded to it.
The results of the survey showed that 35 per cent of people think Downing Street has handled the crisis “not at all well”, while 21 per cent replied with “not very well”.
Only 12 per cent of readers thought the Prime Minister and his cabinet had handled it “very well”.
When asked the same question about Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government, 26 per cent said they had dealt with the crisis very well. Another 45 per cent responded “somewhat well”.
This gives the UK Government a net approval rating of -13, compared to the Scottish Government’s +51 rating.
Arlene Foster and the Northern Ireland Executive scored an approval rating of +36. Based solely on those who answered that they live in Northern Ireland, the administration scored an approval rating of +44.
The proportion of readers who believe the UK Government has done a poor job of handling the crisis increased day-by-day over the weekend, from 51 per cent on Friday to 63 per cent on Monday.
During this time the story about the Prime Minister’s advisor Dominic Cummings taking a trip to Durham broke in the newspapers and has dominated the news agenda since.
In recent weeks the messaging around the crisis has diverged across the UK.
When asked how clear they thought the UK Government’s slogan of “Stay alert, control the virus, save lives” was, a majority of 62 per cent answered either “not very clear” or “not at all clear”.
By comparison, the Scottish Government’s continued message of “Stay at home” was judged to be “very clear” by 80% of respondents.