Raise your game, PM

IF on the off chance Boris Johnson is flicking through a copy of the Mail on his Highland holiday, our poll today will make sobering reading indeed.

In the court of public opinion, voters are furious with the UK Government’s breathtakingly inept handling of the exams fiasco south of the Border.

Like an Exocet missile tearing through a defensive shield, the survey should explode within No 10 any notion of complacency.

Perhaps Downing Street believed the row, which saw tens of thousands of A-level and GCSE students plunged into despair over their futures, was a cynical media confection during the quiet summer.

If so, the Prime Minister and his belligerent aides should think again.

Nearly 80 per cent voters say the exam crisis was tackled badly – including seven in ten of those who marked their ‘X’ for the Conservatives.

More than half believe clueless Education Secretary Gavin Williamson should quit over the debacle.

Three in five say Mr Johnson should have left his windswept Highland cottage and returned to London.

It’s damning that he did not offer even a word of solace to the students.

His personal approval ratings have nosedived. And, adding insult to injury, Labour – who are in the pocket of the militant teaching unions – are now more trusted to run schools.

For the Government, these findings are calamitous – and should send warning sirens blaring in Downing Street. They need to raise their game – and quickly.