UK: Voting intention – 28th January 2021
The Conservatives have returned to the lead in the polls
The Conservatives have reversed Labour’s lead from a fortnight ago to pull ahead by 3 points. The Conservatives are now on 41% (up 4 points from two weeks ago), while Labour are on 38% (down 3 points). The Lib Dems are on 7%, their highest since early November.
The public think the government has continued to do too little too late
Approval of the government’s Covid handling is up very slightly on last week, now at a net approval of -18% (51% disapprove, 33% approve) compared to -20% a fortnight ago (50% disapprove, vs 30% approve).
This is in the context of two thirds (68%) agreeing that government should have done more to stop the spread of Coronavirus (25% believe they did ‘all they reasonably could’) and 61% believing the government had the information available to make better decisions (28% believe they made “the best decisions based on the information available to them at the time”). On the other side, 56% think the government generally did follow the scientific advice, 34% believe they generally did not.
Similarly those that disapprove of the government are evenly divided in their critique of the government: 48% of those that disapprove think the government has failed to handle any aspect well, while just over half (52%) of that group think there are aspects that the government has succeeded in doing relatively well, usually in relation to the vaccine or financial support for individuals and businesses.
You can find the full data tables here.
You can find the full report here.