PROOF UK IS SICK OF LOCKDOWN

Polls back strict rules. Yet we reveal stunning evidence of focus groups saying just the opposite – and despairing of the PM’s corona policy. So will he read their damning conclusions ...and release Britain from its living death?

DRAMATIC evidence of a growing revolt against the coronavirus lockdowns emerged last night.

The public think the rules won’t work, they will break the law if necessary to see their loved ones and believe it is time to ‘get Britain back to normal’.

These are among the key findings from focus groups that suggest traditional opinion polls have failed to spot a decisive change in attitudes toward the pandemic.

One leading pollster believes Britain could be witnessing a repeat of what happened in the 2015 election and the EU referendum. Opinion polls forecast Labour’s Ed Miliband would be prime minister and that Brexit would be rejected: focus groups indicated the opposite and were proved right each time.

Since the start of the pandemic most polls have suggested voters support lockdowns and, if anything, want the Government to impose even more stringent curbs.

Some have argued this is because furloughed workers have been able to stay at home on 80 per cent of their normal wages thanks to taxpayer funds.

Many Tory MPs opposed to Boris Johnson’s three-tier lockdown system claim their stance is backed by many of their constituents. The Daily Mail listened in to one of the focus groups, typical of several that have been conducted recently, and it echoed the MPs’ views.

carried out last Friday, and comprising a

‘Getting wasted in the streets’

cross- section of society, both Tory and Labour, in London, Birmingham and Liverpool, it appears to show that:

■ Voters have lost faith in lockdowns;

■ Unlike the first wave, they are no longer prepared to obey all the rules;

■ They think the second wave of the virus will be less dangerous;

■ They are increasingly worried about the damage to jobs and the economy;

■ The use of severe covid curbs despite the perceived reduced threat is fuelling conspiracy theories;

■ Many will refuse a coronavirus vaccine for fear of side effects;

■ There is continuing fury over rule breakers such as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Dominic cummings.

James Johnson of JL Partners, who acted as moderator in the focus group, says the findings were the same as those in similar studies he had hosted.

He said the results had convinced him the tide of opinion was turning against lockdowns. He said that ‘ nuanced conversations’ that take place in focus groups, which involve only a handful of people, have ‘uncovered hidden truths’ about the pandemic and attitudes to the Government’s lockdown strategy.

Mr Johnson, who advised Theresa May in Downing Street, argues that the focus groups show a resolve to rely on common sense to avoid catching the virus rather than Government diktats.

Voters are ‘ fatigued’ by the curbs and not prepared to carry on being compliant, especially when they see highprofile figures flouting them.

The public, he said, were confused by the rules and were as likely to watch comedian Matt Lucas parody Boris Johnson’s stuttering Downing Street press conferences as watch the Prime Minister himself.

Mr Johnson says that on certain issues the intimate atmosphere of his focus groups enables participants to reveal their true feelings.

This is in contrast to box ticking opinion polls where around 1,000 voters are invited to give a flat yes or no answer to dozens of questions, usually online.

In his most recent focus group, Liverpool pensioner

Brian complained: ‘ People with cancer, heart conditions, strokes, they’re all dying.

‘We are saving people with coronavirus but the rest of the population is dying from diseases we can control.’

The public knew lockdowns would ‘always break down’, he told the group.

Angela, 59, from Birmingham, said she went months without seeing her elderly parents earlier in the year and ‘I’m not doing that again’.

Paul, a London property developer, ridiculed the 10pm curfew, saying the virus was ‘just spread among crowds getting wasted in the streets.’

Steph, a charity worker, was equally robust, despite having had the virus herself.

She said Mr cummings was ‘disgusting’ for breaking Covid rules, adding: ‘We have to get back to normality.’

Publicly, the Government is maintaining its tough stance on lockdowns, insisting the rules are vital to stop the virus spiralling out of control.

However, privately, the Government’s position is a different story: like the focus groups, it is rather more nuanced.

The Daily Mail understands that ministers are encouraged by signs that predictions of hundreds of thousands more infections and tens of thousands more deaths in a second wave may be an overestimate.

According to reliable sources, there are signs that the infection rate among university students is falling.

And there is evidence the virus has lost up to 90 per cent of its lethal potency owing to mass wearing of masks.

That, together with more effective drugs, has reduced the fatality rate in hospital intensive care units.

‘Revealing their true feelings’