Support for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ruling Conservative Party has plummeted after a series of scandals, with a majority of voters thinking he should now resign, a poll published on Saturday showed.
Johnson has in the past few weeks found himself facing criticism on a number of fronts, from the funding of the refurbishment of his Downing Street apartment to a claim he intervened to ensure pets were evacuated from Kabul during the Western withdrawal in August.
The most damaging has been reports that a party was held at Downing Street during a Christmas lockdown last year when such festivities were banned, with a video emerging this week that showed staff laughing and joking about it.
Photo: Reuters
The Opinium poll for the Observer found that support for the Conservatives, who have held solid leads in polls since winning a landslide victory in a 2019 election, had fallen four points to 32 percent, while backing for the opposition Labour Party rose to 41 percent, its biggest lead since 2014.
Johnson’s personal ratings were also at their lowest point since the election, with his approval rating at minus-35 percent, down 14 points from two weeks earlier.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents thought he should resign, up from 48 percent two weeks ago.
There has been growing talk of dissatisfaction with Johnson’s leadership among Conservative lawmakers, political commentators have said, and dozens are expected to vote next week against his plan for new measures to combat the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
“The findings of our latest poll are certainly dramatic, with a devastating fall in both support for the Conservatives and approval for the prime minister,” Opinium associate director Adam Drummond said.
Drummond said that Johnson was the “king of comebacks” and had recovered from difficult polling situations before.
“However, unless the Conservatives can turn these numbers around quickly, backbenchers might start asking if the party is over for the prime minister,” he said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS