More think Johnson should resign than think he should continue as PM, poll finds

Opinium survey found slight drop in support for government’s handling of coronavirus pandemic

Nearly two-thirds of the UK do not think the government acted fast enough on Covid (Getty Images)

A higher percentage of people think Boris Johnson should resign as prime minister than think he should continue, a poll has found.

According to an Opinium poll for the Observer, 43 per cent of participants thought Mr Johnson should resign, while 40 per cent said he should remain as prime minister.

Mr Johnson has high levels of support among Conservative voters, with a large majority of 87 per cent believing he should stay on as leader, and only seven per cent thinking he should step down.

In contrast, 52 per cent of people thought Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer should remain in his position, while 20 per cent thought he should resign.

Overall, the poll - which surveyed 2,003 people online on 6-7 January - showed a slight drop in support for the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, with 72 per cent (up four percentage points from the last poll) believing the government has not acted fast enough.

The amount of people who think the government are definitely not acting fast enough also increased four percentage points to 42 per cent.

The number of people who disapprove of the government’s handling of the pandemic has risen by three points, the highest disapproval number since early November. The number of people who approve has dropped by three points to 31 per cent.

The survey comes after growing frustration regarding Mr Johnson’s frequent U-turns over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to discontent within his own party and among the British public.

Since the outbreak began last March, the government has performed some 11 U-turns, from reversing a decision that would have granted foreign doctors and nurses indefinite leave to remain in the UK, but not thousands of other critical staff, to imposing a second national lockdown in October after repeatedly ruling it out.

More than three in five people (64 per cent) said they would prefer a “government who quickly puts lockdown measures in place, even if that means that sometimes measures are put in place that didn’t need to be”, reported the Observer.

Just 25 per cent said they would prefer “a government who tries the hardest they can not to put lockdown measures in place, even if that means that sometimes decision are made later than they would otherwise have been”.

The public’s overall approval of Mr Johnson has dropped slightly, with the percentage of people approving falling by one point to 37 per cent compared to the last poll and the percentage of people of people disapproving rising by one point to 45 per cent.

Labour holds a one-point lead on 40 per cent of the vote, with the Tories on 39 per cent, according to the poll. The Lib Dems have six per cent, the SNP five per cent and the Greens four per cent.