Boris Johnson’s public support plummets over Cummings scandal

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sees his public support suffer the sharpest fall for a Conservative leader in a decade as he prepared to be grilled by lawmakers over his handling of the Dominic Cummings scandal.

Johnson has stuck by Cummings despite a public and political backlash over his top aide’s travels to visit family despite the government’s strict rules to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Cummings affair seems to have really cut through to the public and is taking a rapid toll on support for the government in general and the prime minister in particular,” Tim Bale, professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, tells AFP.

“The danger is that it triggers and reinforces a long-held concern among British voters that the Conservative Party cares more about its rich friends than about ordinary folk.”

A YouGov poll for The Times newspaper shows the Conservative lead over the main opposition Labour party shrink by nine points in a week.

The survey puts the Tories at 44 percent — down four points — and Labour at 38 percent, up five points over the past seven days.

The last Tory leader to see his lead fall by the same amount was David Cameron during the 2010 general election campaign.

— AFP