English prefer Welsh and Scottish governments’ handling of Covid-19 to their own – poll

People in England think the governments of Wales and Scotland have done a better job of handling the Covid-19 crisis than Boris Johnson’s administration, according to a new poll.

Just 41% of respondents to the YouGov poll felt that the UK government had dealt with the crisis very well or fairly well, with 53% saying the Westminster government had done a bad job.

The YouGov poll carried out on behalf of YesCymru, showed English people were more impressed with the governments of Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland and Mark Drakeford in Wales in their handling of the health crisis.

57% of English people thought the Edinburgh government had performed well compared to just 19% who gave it a bad rating.

When it came to the Welsh government approach 50% of respondents thought the Welsh government had performed well compared with 17% who said it had done badly.

Northern Ireland was also seen to have done well during the crisis, 45% of respondents said the government had done well with just 13% saying it had done poorly.

‘Favourable’

Political scientist, Dr Dafydd Trystan, commenting on the polls findings said: “The results from England on the comparative performance of the four governments of the UK are quite remarkable.

“While electors take an unfavourable view of the UK government’s approach to COVID, net -12, their view of the other governments of the UK is far more favourable.

“The Northern Ireland Executive has a rating of +32%, the Welsh government +33% and Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government records a remarkably positive score of +39%.

“These ratings are underpinned by the fact that Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat voters alike rate positively the effective record of the Celtic governments in comparison to the apparent failures of Boris Johnson in England.”

‘Flaws’

The poll’s findings were described as “extraordinary” by YesCymru chairman, Siôn Jobbins who argued the crisis could spark a debate on the future of England and the United Kingdom.

“These numbers are incredible and show people in England are now aware of devolution in a way they weren’t before,” he said.

“And they like what they see in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast and they definitely don’t like what they see in Westminster.

“The Covid-19 crisis has dramatically shown the flaws in the centralised Westminster style of government and it’s time that we have a proper debate about the future of the union.

“The union is letting down the people of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and people in England know it, the Westminster establishment has been found out.”