Conservatives Maintain Healthy Lead in Polls Despite Sleaze Allegations

 For those who watched, Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions were perhaps the tetchiest exchanges seen between Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer as the Prime Minister came under intense questioning about his views on lockdown and who paid the initial costs to refurbish the Downing Street flat.

past few weeks having delivered a constant stream of headlines accusing the Prime Minister of sleaze, the latest round of polls indicate that it is not exactly having much of an impact on the public.

According to polling by Savanta ComRes which took place between the 23rd and 25th April, the headline voting intentions (with changes from 16th-18th April in brackets) were as follows: Conservatives 42% (-1), Labour 35% (+1), Liberal Democrats 8% (+1).

The latest data by YouGov for The Times meanwhile puts the Conservatives on 44% (unchanged from its last poll), Labour actually down 1 point to 33% with the Liberal Democrats on 7% (+2).

Interestingly, further polling by YouGov points to the public simply accepting that  if the Prime Minister really did say that he would prefer to “let the bodies pile high” rather than enter a third lockdown it was more in frustration at the idea of another lockdown rather than a demonstration of the value he attached to people’s lives.

Whilst the research for The Times found that 50% of Britons thought the Prime Minister did make the remark, 51% agreed that if he had said what was suggested, it would “probably have just been his way of expressing his reluctance to re-enter lockdown”. That said, 30% thought the comment gave more insight about “how little [the Prime Minister] valued saving people's lives”.

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