Has Cummings’ Evidence Cut Through To The Public?

 Westminster was this week transfixed by the seven or so hours of evidence provided by Boris Johnson’s former Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings, to the Health and Science & Technology Committees on the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet for all the hype in the media, how much cut through has what he has said had with the public?

According to polling by YouGov whilst just 10% of the public said they were following the news around Cummings’ evidence very closely, 31% said they are following it “fairly” closely with 29% saying they were following the news, but “not very closely”.

And what do the public think of the content of what was said?

According to the poll, 32% felt that the criticisms made by Dominic Cummings were mostly accurate, with 26% saying they were mostly inaccurate. 42% didn’t know what to think about the accuracy of the accusations he made against the Government.

YouGov notes: “This is possibly unsurprising, given a previous YouGov poll found 46% of the public were inclined to believe neither Dominic Cummings nor Boris Johnson over leaks about the government’s pandemic handling back in April.”

Pressed on whether they agreed with the calls by Mr Cummings for the Health Secretary to resign, 36% of those polled said he should go, with 31% saying he should stay and 33% unsure of whether Matt Hancock or should stay or go.

Despite the media interest however, the first signs are that it is has had little impact on people’s attitudes to the main parties.

The Telegraph this evening reports on a poll undertaken by Number Cruncher Politics which finds that 44% of the public would vote for the Conservatives if there was an election tomorrow, while 32% would vote Labour.

The Telegraph continues: “The figures put Mr Johnson's party up one point compared to the same time last month, and three points further ahead after Labour's share fell by two points.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buyers Regret Over Brexit?

This week marked five years since the UK voted to leave the European Union, a decision which has shaken British politics in a way that few would have foreseen. To mark the occasion, Savanta ComRes this week published polling suggesting that if the referendum were held today, remain would just win, with 51% of respondents saying they would vote to stay in the EU compared to 49% who would vote to leave. The poll shows that there would be little switching from either side, with 6% of those who voted remain in 2016 saying they would not vote to leave, and 7% of those who originally voted to leave saying they would now vote remain. Savanta ComRes go on to say: “That means the Remain edge in this poll comes from those who did not vote in 2016, with this group being more than twice as likely to vote for Remain (71%) than Leave (29%).” The poll found however that if the public were asked instead to choose between joining the EU or not, 51% would vote not to become a member, whilst 49% w...
Read more

Can Labour Look Forward to a Decade in Power?

Speaking at the start of the year the new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, spoke of a "decade of national renewal" being the "central, defining purpose" of a future Labour government. Fast forward to today, and for those now in Government the question will be whether the election results can give Labour any confidence at the prospect of a decade in power. Some might conclude that it is absurd to be asking this question, given Labour’s 172 seat majority in the Commons. That is just 7 short of the majority New Labour secured in 1997 which ushered in 13 years of Labour rule. However, dig deeper, and the reality is that Labour’s victory is thin. According to the election results Labour won on Thursday having secured around 9.7 million votes, equivalent to 33.7% of the votes cast. To set that into context, according to House of Commons Library data , that compares to the 13.5 million votes (43.2% vote share) Labour got in 1997. What is more, the total number of ...
Read more

Rishi’s Ratings Sink

Rishi Sunak has registered his weakest favourability ratings since becoming Prime Minister according to new polling by Ipsos Mori. It reports that whilst the Labour Leader, Keir Starmer, has a net favourability score of -7, Rishi Sunak’s has sunk to -19. With Boris Johnson continuing to breathe down Rishi Sunak’s neck, Ipsos goes on to note: “More than half of 2019 Conservative voters are favourable to Johnson (55%) while 49% say the same for Sunak. Overall, among 2019 Conservative voters, Johnson scores +29 while Sunak scores +23.   However, Johnson’s lead owes more to falling ratings for Mr Sunak rather than improving ratings for the former PM.” Looking at the parties as a whole, Labour has a net favourability rating of +2 with the Conservatives on -29. When it coms to Brexit, 55% of respondents told Ipsos that leaving the EU had had a negative impact on the country, with just 21% saying it had been positive. It continues: “If we subtract the proportion saying Brexit has...
Read more