Six out of 10 voters believe Dominic Cummings should QUIT for breaking lockdown rules in a new headache for Boris Johnson as the row over his chief aide sees his own approval rating plummet from 19% to minus 1% – its lowest since the pandemic began
- Some 71%t of people polled by YouGov believe Mr Cummings broke strict coronavirus rules with Durham trip
- Almost six in 10 believe he should resign, including almost half (46%) of Tories and 52% of Leavers
- Mr Johnson had a net approval rating of 19% on Friday before the row over his chief aide’s travel began
- But a new poll by Savanta ComRes today has PM on -1% after he leapt to Mr Cummings’ defence twice
- Ratings of other supportive ministers including Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock are also down sharply
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
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But a poll by Savanta ComRes today has Mr Johnson on -1% after he and senior ministers leapt to Mr Cummings’ (pictured today) defence and refused to sack him.
Boris Johnson suffered a double blow from the Dominic Cummings lockdown row today as it caused his personal popularity to nosedive at the same time as a majority of voters said his top aide broke the rules and should quit.
Some 71 per cent of people polled by YouGov believe Mr Cummings broke strict coronavirus rules by driving from London to Durham in March, including 56 per cent of Tory voters and 63 per cent of his fellow Brexiteers.
Almost six in 10 voters believe he should resign, including almost half (46 per cent) of Tories and 52 per cent of Leavers.
But the Prime Minister’s refusal to sack him has also had an impact on his own image.
Mr Johnson had a net approval rating of 19 per cent on Friday before the news of his chief aide’s 260-mile journey to Durham.
But a poll by Savanta ComRes today has Mr Johnson on -1 per cent after he and senior ministers leapt to Mr Cummings’ defence and refused to sack him – the lowest of the pandemic.
The Prime Minister now has an approval rating of below that of opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer, and the ratings of other senior ministers including Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock have similarly tumbled.
And the row appears to have taken its toll on the Government as a whole, with a Friday approval rating of 20 per cent falling to -2 per cent yesterday.
The figures suggest that Government attempts to dismiss the furore as a Westminster Bubble obsession of no interest to the public may be wide of the mark.
Acting Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: ‘The public have made so many sacrifices since the lockdown and this polling clear shows people think there cannot be one rule for senior government officials and one rule for everyone else.
‘The Prime Minister’s support for his adviser increasingly looks out of touch and is losing him support with the public and his own party.
‘The Prime Minister’s judgement has now become the issue, as this saga is confusing the vital public health messages needed to defeat coronavirus.
Mr Johnson in Downing Street today after returning from running in the grounds of Buckingham Palace
The Prime Minister had a net approval rating of 19% on Friday before the news of his chief aide’s 260-mile journey to Durham. But a poll by Savanta ComRes today has Mr Johnson on -1% after he and senior ministers leapt to Mr Cummings’ defence and refused to sack him – below that of Keir Starmer
It came as a junior Government minister quit, delivering a massive blow to Boris Johnson and Downing Street.
Douglas Ross, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland and a Tory whip, announced this morning he is quitting the frontbench because he was unconvinced by Mr Cummings’ defence of the 260-mile journey in March.
Mr Ross, the MP for Moray, said in his resignation letter: ‘I have constituents who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn’t visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government.
‘I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.’
The MP, who backed the UK staying in the EU in 2016, added that ‘Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked’.
A Number 10 spokesman said Boris Johnson thanked Mr Ross for his ‘service to government and regrets his decision to stand down’.
Labour said Mr Ross had ‘done the decent thing’ by quitting a ‘government that is out of control’ while the SNP claimed it was ‘staggering’ a minister had quit ‘before the unelected adviser’.
The row appears to have taken its toll on the Government as a whole, with a Friday approval rating of 20% falling to -2% yesterday.
The resignation of Mr Ross, a qualified football referee who has previously run the line in Champions League games, comes at the worst possible time for Mr Johnson and Mr Cummings as the Government tries to move on from the damaging row.
Number 10’s headache was only likely to increase as Tory MP Simon Jupp went public with his own criticism this morning as he said if he had been in the same situation as Mr Cummings he ‘wouldn’t have made the same decisions and would have since considered my position’.
Michael Gove had earlier defended the PM’s top aide as a ‘man of honour and integrity’ and said that ‘people will make their own mind up’ about the trip to Durham.
Mr Cummings yesterday refused to apologise for the journey and insisted he had no regrets.