Public think UK government did a bad job over a good job handling Covid pandemic by a two to one margin
Ipsos polling shows low confidence among the public that Boris Johnson and Downing Street staff followed the Covid rules appropriately during the pandemic.
- Half of the British public (51%) thinks the UK Government did a bad job handling the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 1 in 4 (26%) thinking they did a good job.
- 8 in 10 are not very confident or not confident at all that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson followed Covid rules appropriately during the pandemic.
- The public think the pandemic had a worse impact on old people; poor people; people in cities; and people from ethnic minorities compared to other groups.
New polling by Ipsos reveals that half of the British public (51%) think the UK Government did a bad job handling the Covid-19 pandemic, with 1 in 4 (26%) saying they did a good job.
Almost 9 in 10 (87%) are confident that they personally followed Covid rules and regulations appropriately during the pandemic. Confidence was lowest in the Downing Street staff (15%) and then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson (16%), with just over 1 in 3 (36%) having confidence in Keir Starmer’s conduct and more than half (57%) having confidence in the conduct of the British Public as a whole.
Just over 8 in 10 (83%) said they followed the Government’s rules on how to respond to Covid-19 at least most of the time. Stated adherence fell with age: 94% of those 55-75 saying they followed the rules at least most of the time, falling to 72% of those 18-34.
When asked about the perceived overall effect of the pandemic (including health, social, and economic impacts) on different groups of people, the public were more likely to think old people, poor people, people from ethnic minorities, and people in cities were more negative impacted compared to young people, rich people, white people, and people in rural areas, respectively.
Keiran Pedley, Director of Political Research at Ipsos, said:
These findings show the difficult backdrop in terms of public opinion that the Prime Minister faces as he gives evidence to the Covid inquiry this week. The public think the government did a bad rather than a good job handling the Covid pandemic by a 2 to 1 margin and 8 in 10 lack confidence that the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff followed Covid rules and regulations appropriately at the time too.
Technical note
Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,095 adults aged 16-75 in Great Britain. Interviews took place on the online Omnibus between 10th-13th November 2023. Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of errors.
