British voters believe it is inappropriate for Boris Johnson to present an honours list and should lose his £115,000 annual Prime Minister’s allowance, a new Omnisis poll has found.
The poll was conducted after a Parliamentary Privileges Committee report found that Mr Johnson deliberately misled Parliament over lockdown parties during the Covid pandemic.
As a result of the revelations, 69% of those polled said they felt it was inappropriate for Mr Johnson to be allowed to present an honours list, with just 17% saying it was appropriate and 14% didn’t know.
We also asked if people agreed with Liberal Democrats who called for Mr Johnson to lose the £115,000 annual allowance paid to ex-Prime Ministers. 66% agreed that he should lose the allowance, 20% disagreed and 15% didn’t know.
Mr Johnson argued that the Privileges Committee report was flawed so we asked voters if they thought the committee was biased or fair towards the former Prime Minister.
More than two fifths (44%) said the report was fair, 25% said it was biased and 31% didn’t know.
The committee report focused on Mr Johnson’s claims about whether or not he knew that Covid restrictions applied to a Downing Street leaving do in December 2020.
When asked, 76% of voters polled said work leaving events were not allowed under Covid rules in place at the time, with only 13% saying they were allowed. 11% didn’t know.
Abortion rights and prosecutions
Meanwhile, as mum-of-three Carla Foster was this week jailed for inducing an abortion after the legal limit, we asked if voters think women should or should not have the right to an abortion.
Nine out of ten people (91%) said women should have the right with only 9% saying they shouldn’t. And 79% of people said women should not be prosecuted for having an abortion, with only 21% saying they should.
Voter Intention Trackers
On the Omnisis weekly voter intention trackers, Labour ‘s lead over the Conservatives is now at 22 points, up two points on last week, while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s net approval rating has fallen by a point to -9.
ON VOTER INTENTION
- Lab 48% (+1)
- Con 26% (-1)
- LD 10% (NC)
- SNP 3% (NC)
- Ref 5% (-1)
- Green 6% (+1)
ON PRIME MINISTER’S APPROVAL
- Approve: 30% (-1)
- Disapprove: 39% (NC)
- Neither: 32% (+1)
ON WHO’D MAKE THE BEST PRIME MINISTER
- Sir Keir Starmer: 39% (+2)
- Rishi Sunak: 29% (+1)
- Don’t Know: 32% (-3)
ON BREXIT SENTIMENT
All respondents
- Stay Out: 31% (-1)
- Re-join: 47% (NC)
- / DK or not voting: 21% (+1)
Excluding don’t knows and will not votes
- Stay Out: 40% (-1)
- Re-join: 60% (+1)
This week’s poll which was conducted on 15th-16th June 2023, questioned 1,306 people and is weighted to a national representative population.
Tables will be posted here: https://www.omnisis.co.uk/poll-results.
IMAGE CREDIT: Simon Dawson / No10 Downing Street, OGL 3 <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3>, via Wikimedia Commons