On Tuesday and Wednesday, a survey carried out for the Times newspaper put the Conservatives level with the opposition Labour Party while a poll on Thursday and Friday for the Daily Mail put Labour six points ahead. Boris Johnson’s Conservative have lost their lead in the two opinion polls after a growing parliament standards scandal prompted almost two thirds of respondents in one survey to say the British prime minister’s party was disreputable.
Earlier this week, Johnson was forced to say that “the UK is not remotely a corrupt country” after he led efforts to change parliamentary conflict-of-interest rules to protect a threatened with suspension. Since then, members of parliament have come under renewed scrutiny for external work they do which in some cases could have breached the rules.
The YouGov survey for the Times found that 60% of those asked agreed with the statement “the Conservatives these days give the impression of being very sleazy and disreputable,” up from 51% in April. Only 33% agreed with the same statement for Labour.
