Labour has narrowed the Tory lead to just two points this week as support for the Boris Johnson and the Conservatives dropped after the Government’s exams fiasco.
A YouGov poll found that public support for the Tories had dropped four points to 40 per cent while Labour was up three to 38 per cent from last week’s survey.
Sir Keir Starmer is now the preferred choice for Prime Minister, with the Labour leader’s rating rising three points to 35 per cent.
Labour has narrowed the Tory lead to just two points this week as support for the Boris Johnson and the Conservatives dropped after the Government’s exams fiasco
Boris Johnson’s personal rating slipped a point to 31 per cent after the PM refused to sack Gavin Williamson over his handling of the A-level grades row
Sir Keir Starmer is now the preferred choice for Prime Minister, with the Labour leader’s rating rising three points to 35 per cent
Mr Johnson’s personal rating slipped a point to 31 per cent after the PM refused to sack Gavin Williamson over his handling of the A-level grades row.
The new poll, which shows the lowest Tory leader since Mr Johnson took control of the party, was conducted for The Times on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On April 4, four months after thrashing Jeremy Corbyn at the 2019 general election and a week after lockdown began, the Tories had a 24-point lead over Labour.
The Conservative Party’s popularity plunged in May with a nine-point drop in one week, but stabilised. Three YouGov polls conducted last month showed Tory leaders of up to 10 points.
Last week’s seven-point drop is likely to set alarm bells ringing off in the Tory camp, as it gives Labour the best chance of taking the lead for the first time since Mr Johnson became PM.
According to The Times, the result will be welcome news to strategists in Sir Keir’s camp who have told shadow Cabinet ministers to attack the Government’s mishandling of the coronavirus lockdown.
MailOnline reported how Gavin Williamson is ‘on his last life’ after his humiliating exams fiasco and will be sacked if Boris Johnson’s schools reopening is botched.
The under-fire Education Secretary has defied calls to resign from MPs across the board following his disastrously mishandled A-level grading debacle.
Cabinet colleagues now believe that Mr Williamson, who is desperately trying to cling to his job, cannot survive another mishap if he also bungles the PM’s promise to reopen schools in England in time for the new term in September.
But a Government insider hit back at the claims today, telling The Sun: ‘Gavin talks a good game but the People’s Government will not be blackmailed by anyone.’
And despite low public approval of the Tory administration and backbench pressure to sack Mr Williamson, Downing Street is defying calls for an autumn reshuffle.
The PM is expected to make ‘minor’ changes to his Cabinet after the summer recess before a full January ‘reset’ when the Brexit transition period has ended.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, one Tory said the Government is ‘being seen as hapless’: ‘We have had too many mishaps for a Government that is only a year old’.
Another Tory backbencher said: ‘I’ve no doubt Boris is in touch with what is going on, but it really just feels as though there is a lack of grip.’
A third warned of ‘huge pressure building up at the bottom of the volcano’ and said the elections next May ‘could be an enormous wake up call’ to the Tories.
‘Brexit and a Corbyn-led Labour party, which won us the election in 2019, will be rotting corpses by then,’ they told the newspaper.
‘It’s not about what the Government does but whether it is competent. With fiascos like the grading scandal, we are giving our supporters good reason not to come out and support us. That’s a potential for a political tsunami to take place.’
Gavin Williamson is ‘on his last life’ after his exams fiasco and will be sacked if schools reopening is botched, Cabinet colleagues claim
By Jack Wright for MailOnline
Gavin Williamson is ‘on his last life’ after his humiliating exams fiasco and will be sacked if Boris Johnson’s schools reopening is botched, ministers claimed today.
The under-fire Education Secretary has defied calls to resign from MPs across the board following his disastrously mishandled A-level grading debacle.
Cabinet colleagues now believe that Mr Williamson, who is desperately trying to cling to his job, cannot survive another mishap if he also bungles the PM’s promise to reopen schools in England in time for the new term in September.
Tory backbenchers claimed that Mr Johnson is protecting the ex-Chief Whip amid claims he ‘not only buried all the bodies but still has the shovel’.
But a Government insider hit back at the claims today, telling The Sun: ‘Gavin talks a good game but the People’s Government will not be blackmailed by anyone.’
The warnings came as calls for the Education Secretary to resign continued to grow, just weeks before schools in England are due to return full-time.
Gavin Williamson, pictured today, is ‘on his last life’ after his humiliating exams fiasco and will be sacked if Boris Johnson’s schools reopening is botched, Cabinet ministers have claimed
Cabinet members now believe that embattled Mr Williamson cannot survive another mishap if he also botches Boris Johnson’s promise to reopen schools after months of lockdown
Tory MPs are worrying about the Government’s handling of the results debacle and see it as the latest in a long line of errors during the coronavirus crisis.
One senior Tory MP told MailOnline ‘there is no question’ that Mr Johnson, who is on holiday in Scotland, should be ‘showing his face’ during the crisis.
‘I can see why he would not want to be around so that Gavin Williamson takes all of the flak but it would steady the ship a bit if he did pop up,’ they said.
Matt Hancock suggested the Education Secretary had not been sacked because of his role in implementing Mr Johnson’s vision of reopening schools in England.
‘The big focus is on getting schools back and open at the start of next month, an incredibly important task,’ the Health Secretary told Sky News. ‘I don’t think we should be distracted from that task now. We need to absolutely focus on it.’
Mr Hancock also slammed calls for Mr Williamson to resign and claimed that ministers are ‘trying to do their best’ during the pandemic.
Today Mr Williamson gave his full backing to Ofqual just one day after blaming the exam regulator for the Government’s A-level results chaos.
The Education Secretary is facing growing calls to quit over his handling of the results row, but has said he wants to stay in the role long into the future.
During a series of interviews the Cabinet minister had failed to give his unequivocal backing to Ofqual. But with less than 24 hours to go until students receive their GCSE results, Mr Williamson’s department signalled a change in tack.
It said: ‘As the Government has made clear, we have full confidence in Ofqual and its leadership in their role as independent regulator and we continue to work closely with Ofqual to deliver fair results for our young people at this unprecedented time.’
The department’s statement also suggested the U-turn over exam results which saw a controversial algorithm ditched in favour of teacher predicted grades was ultimately decided by Ofqual rather than the Education Secretary.
‘The decision they took to move from moderated grades to centre assessed grades was one that we agreed with,’ the department said.
The dramatic change in tone is likely to spark speculation that the under-fire minister has been read the riot act by Mr Johnson.
It came as the PM faced growing pressure from his own MPs to cut short his holiday to take personal control of the Government’s education omnishambles.
The PM is not expected to return to Number 10 until next week but the debacle surrounding A-level and GCSE exam results means he is under pressure to intervene.
Mr Johnson’s political opponents have called for him to return early as they claimed the PM ‘cannot be bothered to get back to work during the biggest exams crisis in a generation’.
Calls for Mr Williamson to resign continue to grow, just weeks before schools in England are due to return full-time.
Boris Johnson is facing calls from Tory MPs to pause his holiday to take charge of the crisis
Youth protests in front of the Department for Education on August 16. Nearly 280,000 students saw their A-Level grades downgraded by a government algorithm
Tory MPs are increasingly worried about the Government’s handling of the results fiasco and see it as being the latest in a long line of unforced errors during the coronavirus crisis.
One senior Tory MP told MailOnline ‘there is no question’ that Mr Johnson should be ‘showing his face’ during the crisis.
‘I can see why he would not want to be around so that Gavin Williamson takes all of the flack but it would steady the ship a bit if he did pop up,’ they said.
Acting leader of the Lib Dems, Sir Ed Davey, said: ‘On the steps of Downing Street the PM said it was his job to close the opportunity gap and that when it came to delivering on his plans that the buck stops with him.
‘The Prime Minister cannot expect us to take his words seriously if he cannot be bothered to get back to work during the biggest exams crisis in a generation.
‘Universities are struggling and thousands of students still have no idea where they will be in the Autumn, the PM needs to take accountability for this awful mess.’
Labour’s shadow health minister Justin Madders had earlier likened the PM to the famous ‘Where’s Wally’ character, telling the Daily Star: ‘Where’s Wally? More like where is THE wally?’
Demands for the PM to cancel his holiday have also swept social media as Twitter users used ‘Where’s Boris’ and ‘Boris Has Failed Britain’ hashtags to criticise him for his absence.
Mr Johnson is said to have been spotted wearing a bobble hat and sunglasses in Scotland, in an apparent effort to avoid being recognised as he holidays with partner Carrie Symonds amid the ongoing exams crisis.
Despite the growing Tory unease about the performance of some Cabinet ministers, Mr Johnson is said to be resisting calls for an autumn reshuffle with a major shake-up of his top team likely to be delayed until the new year.
The results row unfolded after A-level grades were calculated using an algorithm developed by Ofqual.
But the algorithm meant 40 per cent of grades were downgraded from what teachers had predicted, prompting widespread student and parent fury.
Mr Williamson, known by some in Westminster as Private Pike after the hapless character in the TV show Dad’s Army, had originally backed the algorithm but then earlier this week performed a U-turn as he said grades would be based on teacher estimates instead.
Speaking to LBC Radio yesterday, the Education Secretary blamed Ofqual for the chaos.
When it was put to him that Ofqual had ‘failed’, Mr Williamson said: ‘We ended up in a situation where Ofqual didn’t deliver the system that we had been reassured and believed that would be in place.’
Asked if he had confidence in the regulator, Mr Williamson said: ‘It is quite clear that there have been some real challenges in terms of what Ofqual have been able to deliver.’
And asked if he had confidence in chief regulator Sally Collier, Mr Williamson said: ‘Our focus and what I expect from Ofqual is to ensure that they deliver the grades that youngsters need over… this week and over the next few weeks and ensure that the appeals process is properly managed and people get the grades that they’ve worked towards and that they deserve.’
Mr Williamson’s hopes of clinging on were given a boost this morning after he was defended by Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Asked if he would have considered resigning if he was in Mr Williamson’s shoes, Mr Hancock told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: ‘Well, I think that Gavin has faced these very difficult challenges and done his best in very difficult circumstances.’