Poll: Johnson more popular than Sunak among 2019 voters

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News Websites
19 Jun 2023 23:45

Despite the Boris Johnson Partygate scandal, Rishi Sunak is still less popular than his predecessor.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is welcomed to the US Capitol in Washington by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, September 22, 2021. (AP)

According to a new YouGov poll, the former PM of Britain Boris Johnson has more popularity points than Rishi Sunak among 2019 Tory voters. The former PM has a net approval rating of 14 compared to Sunak who has 7.

A UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday, that Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was Prime Minister.

The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".

But he evaded formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.

However, among Conservatives who voted for the party in the past election, Sunak lower popularity rating than Johnson.

On the other hand, has a net approval rating of -23, while Johnson has a rating of -39. Some 61 percent believe Johnson was a disastrous PM, while 42 percent believe Sunak is performing poorly.

The Prime Minister has declined to declare if he will vote on the privileges committee report into his predecessor's actions if there is a showdown vote, but he is anticipated to skip the discussion and vote.

Sunak stated that he did not comment on the report's conclusions because “I wouldn’t want to influence anyone in advance of that vote." He also told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that “it will be up to each and every individual MP to make a decision of what they want to do when the time comes.”

According to Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, “The buck stops at the very top of government – if Rishi Sunak really wanted to govern with integrity he shouldn’t be running scared of this vote.”

The Sunday Times received a video showing Conservative Party employees dancing and laughing about Covid restrictions. Former London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey and Tory staffer Ben Mallet, who received a peerage and an OBE, both attended the event.