UK: Public opinion on coronavirus – 13th May
Government response to Coronavirus
The last week has seen a significant drop in public confidence in, and approval of, the Government’s handling of the coronavirus situation.Approval of the handling of the crisis has also decreased from 48% to 39%, while disapproval has climbed from 36% to 42%. This is the first time these approval ratings are in negative territory.
Meanwhile two-fifths (39%) now state they are not confident in the Government’s abilities, rising from 31% last week.
Confusion over Covid advice
Half (53%) of the English public do not feel that the new Government slogan of ‘Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives’ is clear, and less than a third (31%) of the British public were able to correctly identify where the UK is on the COVID Alert System scale that the Government introduced [number 4 on the scale].
Public feels uncomfortable using public transport
Once lockdown is lifted, it will likely take some time for the public to feel comfortable travelling by public transport again. Only one in seven would feel comfortable travelling by train/Overground or bus (15% and 16% respectively). This drops to 12% who would feel comfortable immediately travelling by metro/underground and 11% for travelling by plane.
More than one in four would not feel comfortable using any of these forms of public transport again until a vaccine is available.
Keir Starmer is gradually winning over the undecided
Now for the first time, the proportion approving of the Labour leader’s performance outnumbers those who have yet to make up their minds and the ratio of approvers to disapprovers has remained broadly constant. Although Opinium only started tracking approval ratings in 2012, this is a more positive picture than either of Starmer’s predecessors was able to point to.
Tables available here.
Report is available here.