The majority of the public think the investigation into Downing Street parties should continue and only a quarter feel Boris Johnson should remain as Prime Minister, new polling shows.
Four in five Britons also believe Boris Johnson “broke the coronavirus regulations with parties in Downing Street” amid a criminal investigation into the “partygate” scandal, according to surveys carried out by JL Partners.
Out of 2,000 respondents, 55 per cent said the investigation into the Downing Street parties should continue, while 36 per cent believed the country must now move on from the allegations, which have presented the greatest threat to Mr Johnson’s leadership to date.
Seventy-one per cent of 2019 Conservative voters who were surveyed believed Mr Johnson had not followed the rules and 63 per cent of those who supported his party at the last general election felt investigations by Sue Gray and the Metropolitan Police should continue.
On Boris Johnson’s leadership of the country, 61 per cent think he should resign while 25 per cent want him to stay on in his post. In snap polling by Savanta ComRes on Monday, 69 per cent of those surveyed wanted Mr Johnson to resign after his statement in the Commons.
The Prime Minister’s performance, in which he repeatedly refused to resign and made personal attacks on Sir Keir Starmer and Labour frontbenchers, does not seem to have played well with voters, according to the JL Partners data, commissioned by Playbook.
Sixty-two per cent feel Johnson has responded in the wrong way this week, while only 21 per cent feel he has got it right and 17 per cent said they did not know.
A further 78 per cent want the report by Ms Gray, the second permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, to be published in full.
She issued an update on Monday with the caveat she was “extremely limited” in what she could say during the ongoing police investigation.
Although a number of recent opinion polls have shown a narrowing in Labour’s lead, Sir Keir’s party extended its margin over the Conservatives to 11 points in Savanta ComRes research published yesterday.
It comes as Tobias Ellwood became the latest in a line of Conservative MPs to call on Boris Johnson to resign, confirming he will submit a letter of no confidence to the 1922 Committee later on Wednesday.
“I don’t think the Prime Minister realises how worried colleagues are in every corner of the party, backbenchers and ministers alike that this is all only going one way,” Mr Ellwood told Sky News.
