The majority of people think that the current Government is corrupt, while only 16% disagree with the statement, according to exclusive polling we undertook in collaboration with Byline Times.
27% of people asked strongly agreed that the Government is corrupt, 31% agreed, 26% neither agreed nor disagreed, 13% disagreed and only 3% strongly disagreed.
Respondents were polled in a week when the Government and the Conservative Party have been embroiled in controversy over former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson, who was found guilty of attempting to lobby on behalf of two private companies that paid him more than £100,000 a year.
79% of voters polled by Omnisis said that MPs should not be allowed to have second jobs with private companies while working in Parliament. Byline Times revealed that the 59 Conservative MPs who led the charge to defend Paterson – against a 30-day suspension from Parliament recommended by the parliamentary standards commissioner as a result of his “egregious” lobbying – cumulatively earn more than £1 million a year from second jobs.
This belief is consistent throughout the political spectrum, with 79% of 2019 Conservative voters polled, 80% of Labour voters, and 82% of Liberal Democrats all agreeing that MPs should be prevented from having second jobs.
Image Credit: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Following a U-turn by the Government, Paterson resigned as an MP. An overwhelming 93% of people polled by Omnisis said that an MP should immediately resign if found guilty of lobbying the Government on behalf of a private company, breaking parliamentary rules. Once again, this conviction was consistent among supporters of all political parties.
Byline Times has shown that at least £3 billion in COVID-related contracts have been awarded to firms owned by Conservative donors and associates, while a number of deals for personal protective equipment were given to firms without much experience of doing the job. There have also been long-standing concerns about the infiltration of the private sector into the work of the NHS.
Read the full results.
The online poll was conducted for Byline Times by Ominisis on 4th November 2021.