Disapproval of the government jumps to highest level since Boris Johnson won the general election

Disapproval of the government is currently at its highest level since Boris Johnson won the general election last year.

The latest figures from YouGov show only 30% of people approve of Johnson’s government, while 50% disapprove and 20% don’t know.

The disapproval rate was at 42% just after the general election last December but had fallen to 26% by the end of March.

Since then it has been increasing steadily alongside criticism of Downing Street’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

Read more: Stop blaming young people for the spread of coronavirus, scientists tell government

The government has made several U-turns, including over providing food vouchers for poor families, a contact-tracing app and awarding students grades based on an algorithm.

It has now faced another difficult week after a sharp rise in daily COVID-19 cases saw 2,988 new cases on Sunday, the highest daily increase since 22 May, followed by another 2,948 on Monday and 2,420 on Tuesday.

Downing Street has also been criticised after Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis admitted on Tuesday that government changes to the Internal Market Bill would breach international law, albeit in a “very specific and limited way”.

Read more: Boris Johnson: ‘We expect everybody in this country to obey the law’

Read more: How other countries reacted to Boris Johnson's willingness to break international law

In response, the EU warned Britain its international reputation would be tarnished and there would be no trade deal if it tried to undercut the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

On Wednesday Labour leader Keir Starmer said the government’s lack of “basic competence” was “holding Britain back”.

Referring to problems with test and trace, he said: “The government is lurching from crisis to crisis. It still lacks even basic (competence).”

YouGov surveyed between 1,611 and 3,326 adults in the latest poll and asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the Government’s record to date?”.