Boris Johnson’s approval rating plunges following Dominic Cummings scandal
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus crisis has plunged following the revelations about his chief adviser Dominic Cummings, a poll published today found.
A poll from Savanta found that Johnson’s approval rating for his handling of the crisis is now below zero (minus one per cent), having dropped 20 points since the end of last week.
Approval regarding the government’s handling of the crisis, once exceedingly high, has also taken a dramatic fall, Savanta said.
Overall government approval is now at minus two, dropping 16 points in a day, the poll found.
Cummings and his patron Johnson are under severe political pressure after the Mirror and Guardian revealed on Friday that Cummings had driven to Durham from London with his wife who was suffering coronavirus symptoms at the height of the pandemic.
Cummings yesterday denied he had breached government lockdown regulations and said he did not regret his actions.
He has been defended by Johnson and other cabinet heavyweights such as chancellor Rishi Sunak, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and Health secretary Matt Hancock.
However, this morning junior minister Douglas Ross, MP for Moray, resigned saying that while he accepted Cummings’ justification for his trips, this was “not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked”.
Ross, who also served as under-secretary of state for Scotland, said he had thought “long and hard” over the decision.
“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,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
“I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right.”