Government Not Delivering on ‘Levelling Up’ Agenda Suggests New Poll

Opinium has published its latest fortnightly political report for The Observer.

In respect of headline voting intentions, the Conservatives now have a lead over Labour of seven points, down from eight points two weeks ago. The Conservatives are on 42% (down one point) with Labour unchanged on 35%.

The poll finds that Boris Johnson’s net approval rating is now -16, down from -13 a fortnight ago, and -8 two weeks before that. Opinium notes that this is “the lowest net approval rating we have recorded since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.”

The polling company notes however that this is not leading to be uptake in support for the Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer. It writes: “worse news for Johnson doesn’t automatically mean better news for Stamer. His approval rating is also down this week, with a net score of -11, down from -6 two weeks ago. In total, 28% approve of the job he is doing as Prime Minister (-2) while 39% disapprove (+3).  Similar to Johnson, this is his joint worse score since we have been tracking, alongside our poll from May this year.”

Asked who would make the best Prime Minister, 31% said Boris Johnson, 25% opted for Keir Starmer and 32% chose neither of them.

Questioned about the Government’s flagship ‘levelling up’ agenda, just 18% said they had a clear idea of what it meant, with 30% saying they had only a vague idea. A further 30% had not heard of the term before.

Having been asked this, Opinium notes that those who were questioned were then shown the following information about ‘Levelling up’: “Levelling up” is the idea is that people and communities that feel they have been left behind get a chance to catch up.  The Queen's Speech said that the government would "level up opportunities across all parts of the United Kingdom".

Having heard this, 50% of those polled thought the Government was not delivering on the levelling up agenda, compared to 17% who though they were.

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