Reasons to be Cheerful for Labour?

Opinium has published its latest polling for The Observer which points to potential signs of progress for Labour.

The survey which took place on 27th May, just a day after Dominic Cummings gave his scathing evidence to MPs on the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic sees the Conservative lead over Labour cut from 13 to 6 points compared to Opinium’s last poll on 13th May.

On headline voting intentions, the Conservatives are on 42%, down 2 points. Labour meanwhile is on 36%, up 5 points.

33% said that they felt Boris Johnson is best as Prime Minister, down from 40% two weeks ago. In contrast, 27% now say Keir Starmer would be the best Prime Minister, up from 23%. That said this still remains below the 28% who said they did not know who would make the best Prime Minister.

Opinium goes on to note that: “In similar vein, Johnson’s approval ratings have also fallen from +6% to -6% while Starmer’s has held steady at -9%.”

In a sign that Dominic Cummings’ evidence has had cut through, those polled gave the Government’s handling of the pandemic a net approval rating of 0%, down 14 points. Opinium explains: “The number of people who approve of the government’s handling of Coronavirus has dropped with 40% now approving (down from 47% a fortnight ago) and 40% disapproving (up from 33%).”

Amidst ongoing concerns about the impact of the Indian variant of coronavirus, 43% of people said they would support postponing the lockdown easing on the 21st June. In contrast, 34% said it should go ahead, whilst 10% said it should be brought forward.

Looking in more detail at the response of those polled to what Dominic Cummings said this week, despite just 20% saying they generally trusted him to tell the truth, 66% believe the accusation he made that the Government was following a strategy of so called herd immunity at the start of the pandemic. 60% said they believe the Prime Minister regarded COVID-19 as a scare story and described it as “the new Swine Flu’.

49% said they believed the accusation made that the Health Secretary lied about older people being tested for the virus before they were moved to care homes from hospital. 44% said the Health Secretary should resign, whilst 30% felt that he should remain in post.

Opinium goes on to observe: “However, the claim that Cummings made that the public most strongly agree with is that he should never have had a senior job in government. Just 14% think he should have, compared to 61% who think he shouldn’t have.”

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