UK PM’s party loses poll lead after lockdown party revelations

UK PM’s party loses poll lead after lockdown party revelations

68% of those surveyed believe Boris Johnson was not telling the truth when he denied it.

PM Boris Johnson listens to a question at a press conference in London’s Downing Street on Wednesday. (AP pic)
LONDON:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has lost its poll lead over the opposition Labour Party after revelations about alleged lockdown parties at Johnson’s residence provoked an outcry over hypocrisy.

A YouGov poll for The Times newspaper showed Johnson’s Conservatives had lost their lead, dropping 3 percentage points from Dec 2 to 33% of the vote while Labour rose 4 percentage points to 37%.

Johnson won 365 of 650 seats in the 2019 snap election, the biggest Conservative Party majority since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 victory.

Johnson imposed restrictions on England on Wednesday, just hours after apologising for a video apparently showing staff laughing about a party in Downing Street during a 2020 Christmas Covid-19 lockdown when such festivities were banned.

Three-quarters of people believe that there was a Christmas party in which coronavirus rules were broken and 68% of those polled believe Johnson was not telling the truth when he denied it, The Times said.

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