Only one in five think Boris Johnson will deliver on levelling up plans, poll finds

Even people who voted Tory in 2019 are not wholly behind the PM’s plan, reports Jon Sharman

A Hope Not Hate poll may make uncomfortable reading for the PM, whose own voters remain unconvinced (Getty Images)

Four-fifths of Britons lack confidence in Boris Johnson’s plan to “level up” the country, a survey suggests.

Some 59 per cent of people polled for a new report by Hope Not Hate, the anti-far-right group, said they thought the prime minister would not succeed in “levelling up” less affluent parts of the country, and a further 21 per cent said they did not know. Only one-fifth had a positive view.

Unsurprisingly, pessimism was more prevalent among Labour voters, of whom nearly three-quarters said the PM’s effort was doomed. More worryingly for Mr Johnson, however, was that more than one-third – 34 per cent – of people who voted Conservative in 2019 did not believe he could achieve his goal.