An exclusive poll that we undertook in collaboration with Byline Times suggests the Prime Minister may still pay the price for lockdown-breaking parties, as almost three-quarters of UK voters do not trust him to tell the truth.
Johnson’s allies believe he has survived the ‘Partygate’ scandal. However, the new polling suggests the scandal may have seriously damaged his Government.
In the wake of fines being issued to Downing Street staff, the poll found that 73% of those surveyed did not trust Johnson to tell the truth, with just 6% of voters saying they trust him a lot.
Even among Conservative voters, a substantial minority said that they did not have full trust in him to tell the truth, with a total of 26% of those surveyed expressing doubts.
The Prime Minister has faced allegations of lying to the public, after repeatedly denying that any parties had taken place in Downing Street. His reluctance to be open about the scandal may have had a wider impact on public trust in the Government.
68% of those surveyed said that the scandal had made them less likely to trust any statement by the Government.
With next month’s local elections looming, more than half (56%) said that the scandal had also made them less likely to vote for the Conservatives. By contrast, 36% of voters said that the scandal had not affected how they planned to vote.
The online poll was conducted for Byline Times by Omnisis between 6th - 7th April 2022.
Image Credit: 10 Downing Street, OGL 3 <http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3>, via Wikimedia Commons