Seven in ten (70%) of Brits say that Boris Johnson misled MPs over ‘Partygate’, according to a new poll from Savanta.
That 70%, comprised of two in five (40%) who say he ‘definitely’ misled MPs and three in ten (30%) who say he ‘probably’ did, includes a majority (60%) of Conservative 2019 voters who would have placed their faith in Johnson at the last General Election.
Just one in twenty (5%) are certain that the former Prime Minister did not knowingly mislead Parliament over Partygate.
The poll comes days before Johnson is due to appear before the Privileges Committee as part of its investigation into Partygate and whether Mr Johnson knowingly misled the House.
If found to be in contempt of Parliament, a third (30%) of the public say that the former Prime Minister should resign as an MP, although a greater proportion (37%) say he should resign as an MP before the committee reports, an indication of the dislike still held by the public for him.
One in five (19%) Conservative voters say he should resign irrespective of whether the committee finds him in contempt of Parliament, while in a separate recent Savanta poll, Boris Johnson’s net favourability stands at -20, significantly lower than the current Prime Minister (-8) and Leader of the Opposition (-1).
Dislike for Johnson is perhaps down to around half (46%) saying that the investigation into ‘Partygate’ matters the same amount now as it did when Johnson was in power, with just a fifth (22%) saying that it now matters less.
Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta said, “At various points during Sunak’s premiership, Johnson and Truss’ political interventions have ended up undermining Sunak’s attempts to distance himself from the unpopularity of both of his predecessors. While Sunak can do little about the timing of the Privileges Committee hearing where Johnson is due to give evidence, a renewed airing of the dirty Conservative laundry that is Partygate has the potential to undo the green shoots of recovery in the polls Sunak has presided over.”
“While mention of Boris Johnson does not necessarily equate to bad news for Sunak, the fact remains that Sunak’s personal polling is ahead of that of the Conservatives and government, brands that Johnson is at least partly responsible for trashing. While Johnson has been out of public sight and out of the public’s mind for a while, that’s all about to change this week and the impact it has on Sunak and the Conservatives will be interesting to keep an eye on.”
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