Boris Johnson's approval rating plummets following Cummings testimony

Following Dominic Cummings' bombshell testimony a week ago Boris Johnson has a break down large fall in his approval ratings.

The Prime Minister's former adviser painted a terribly chaotic Number 10 claiming that "senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short" of what the "public expects throughout a crisis like this" and asserted there " wasn't any plan "

Referring to how slow the government ended up being to react, he said: "I think it is within retrospect completely obvious that many, many institutions failed about this early question."

Following Cumming's testimony this week, the Conservative's lead has fallen by six points with the Tories down two points at 42% while Labour are up five points on 36% according to the latest poll by Opinium. Johnson's approval rating has also tumbled from +6 to -6, while Starmer's has held steady at -9.

In fact, Johnson has witnessed a sizable drop in the last two weeks around the number of individuals who think he is strong (41% right down to 34%), likeable (46% down to 39%), and competent (38% right down to 33%).

Things aren't great from Starmer however with the number of individuals who think he is decisive fell from 27% down from 36%, “in touch with ordinary people” fell to 28% from 32% and “has similar views to their own” fell to 28% from 32%.

Despite merely a fifth (20%) trusting Cummings in truth, compared to 71% who do not trust him, people do generally believe a lot of his claims:

The end for Matt Hancock?

When it comes to Matt Hancock, 44% think he should resign as health secretary, when compared with only 30% who think he ought to keep his job.

Still, the claim that Cummings made the public most strongly accept is that Hancock should never have had a senior job in government (61% vs 14%).

Handling of the pandemic

The number of individuals who approve of the government's handling from the pandemic has dropped, with 40% now approving (-7) and 40% now disapproving (+7). Specifically, 41% disapprove from the Prime Minister's handling, when compared with 38% who approve, and 42% disapprove of Matt Hancock's handling (vs 31% who approve).

In addition, sixty-six per cent (66%) of the public think the federal government acted too slowly in responding to Coronavirus, when compared with just 28% who think they acted fast enough.

Read two detail analysis of how government failed to get on top of the pandemic in Wales here and here.

Indian variant vs roadmap in England

With the rise of the new Indian variant, 43% of individuals now offer the postponing on the June 21 lockdown easing in England. This compares to 34% who think it ought to proceed as planned, and 10% who think it ought to be brought forward.

There's been growing evidence the Indian variant in England is a growing threat with cases in areas like Bolton rising fast in recent weeks as you can see from this graph:

Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, said: “Whilst Dominic Cummings is viewed as one of the least trustworthy men in Britain, the general public do see some truth in the allegations he made against Boris Johnson's government, puncturing the Conservatives' post-Hartlepool bounce and reversing a current spike within the prime minister's approval rating.

However, you will find strong good reasons to believe that this won't last though as the underlying approval figures for that vaccine rollout, that has driven voting intention forever of 2021, are unchanged and remain very strong.”