LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have lost their poll lead over the opposition Labour Party after revelations about alleged lockdown parties at Johnson’s residence provoked an outcry over hypocrisy, Reuters reported.
A YouGov poll for The Times newspaper showed Johnson’s Conservatives had dropped 3 percentage points from Dec. 2 to 33 per cent of the vote while Labour rose 4 percentage points to 37 per cent.
Johnson imposed Covid restrictions on England on Wednesday, just hours after apologising for a video showing staff laughing and joking about a party in Downing Street during a 2020 Christmas lockdown when such festivities were banned.
Downing Street had denied any party took place. Johnson said he was furious about the impression that the video gave.
The BBC reported that Johnson’s deputy director of communications, Jack Doyle, spoke at a party of 20-30 people on Dec. 18. Downing Street declined comment.
Three quarters of people believe that there was a Christmas party in which coronavirus rules were broken and 68 per cent of those polled believe Johnson was not telling the truth when he denied it, The Times said.
Another Survation poll of 1,178 people carried out on Wednesday and Thursday put Labour on 40 per cent of the vote, up 1 percentage point, and Johnson’s Conservatives down 2 to 34 per cent.
Johnson will next week face a rebellion by dozens of Conservative lawmakers who will oppose his imposition of new Covid rules.
“I expect a record number of Conservative MPs to vote against these latest restrictions,” said John Redwood, a Conservative lawmaker.
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