Boris Johnson is wrong type of leader to deal with Russia-Ukraine crisis, say majority of Brits

More than half of Brits think Boris Johnson is not the right person to lead the country through the Ukraine crisis a snap poll has found.

A survey of more than 1,100 people found 54% think the prime minister is the wrong kind of leader for a crisis.

The fieldwork was carried out on Thursday morning, in the hours after Russia launched its invasion.

Johnson had initially been criticised earlier in the week for not going far enough with sanctions when Russia recognised two breakaway provinces in Ukraine as a pretext to invasion.

His party has also faced criticism from Labour and other organisations for being too willing to take donations from Russian oligarchs and allowing them too much access to the height of British society.

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But on Thursday, the Commons was generally united in the UK's response to the crisis as Johnson condemned Russia's actions and announced a series of sanctions.

The measures hit oligarchs, including Putin’s former son-in-law, and tackle more than 100 businesses and other individuals.

Johnson said he was sanctioning “all the major manufacturers that support Putin’s war machine” and will imminently ban Aeroflot from touching down planes in the UK as well as will freezing the assets of all major Russian banks.

“Putin will stand condemned in the eyes of the world and of history. He will never be able to cleanse the blood of Ukraine from his hands,” the prime minister told the Commons.

Johnson has faced criticism for the handling of the COVID-19 crisis as well as the limited support he has offered to tackle the looming cost of living crisis.

He faced heavy criticism for not locking down the UK soon enough in March 2020 when COVID was spreading quickly through the population and was subsequently attacked for being too slow to apply every following lockdown.

His reputation has also been badly damaged recently by the Partygate scandal, which saw numerous boozy parties that happened during the height of lockdown revealed by the media.

He faced calls to resign from within his own party and was accused of weakening the UK's international standing at a time when diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis were at their height.

The survey also found 41% of Brits said a Nato response to the crisis would be justified.

Ukraine is not a member of Nato and so members are not obliged to defend it, but it has reacted with fury to the Russian invasion and several states have triggered emergency protocols within the Nato treaty in response to the crisis.

Despite this, Nato has indicated it does not want to put troops into Ukraine to fight Russia.

The survey also said 32% of Brits want their to be a UK military response to the Ukraine crisis, and 38% of Brits expect there will be one.