The Midlands has little confidence that Boris Johnson will "level up" the region
Nearly nine months since the Midlands as a region overwhelmingly backed Boris Johnson at the General Election, there are signs that some who voted for him are unhappy with his performance during the Coronavirus crisis, and don’t have faith in him to deliver on his promises for the region.
However the Midlands is still significantly more supportive of Mr Johnson than other parts of the country.
An ITV News survey conducted by ComRes revealed that only 39% of people in the region have confidence that the Conservative Government under Boris Johnson will be able to deliver on its key pledge to “level up” the Midlands. This is significantly lower than the 55% of East Midlands voters and 53% of West Midlands voters who supported him at the election.
49% of people in the ITV Central region are not confident the Prime Minister’s levelling-up agenda will be delivered as promised.
“Levelling-up” was a key part of Boris Johnson’s bid to hold onto support from the so-called “Red Wall” of former Labour seats, and involves extra spending and infrastructure projects in previously neglected parts of the region.
There was also uncertainty about how the Prime Minister has handled the coronavirus crisis so far. While 35% of those in the Central region were satisfied with his approach to the pandemic, more people (39%) said they were not satisfied.
This was reflected in attitudes to lockdown. Nearly a half (49%) of people in the region believe lockdown was lifted too early.
People in the Midlands are also split over children returning to school with 36% saying they were not confident in the Government's plans to reopen schools, against 35% who were confident.
There is also significant support in the Midlands for a more regional, less Westminster-driven response to the pandemic, with 31% believing there might have been fewer deaths if decisions had been made at a local level (with 19% believing there would have been more deaths, and 30% saying would have made no difference).
Other findings in the wide-ranging survey include a high number of people (44%) who report that they have not been able to work from home at all during lockdown, and 36% of respondents in the region who say that their mental health has got worse during the pandemic.
While some of these findings may cause concern for the Government, the Midlands is still broadly supportive of Boris Johnson when compared to other regions. In the Granada (North West) and Tyne Tees (North East) regions, 70% said they were not confident the Government would keep its “levelling-up” promise, compared to just 49% in the Midlands.
The attitudes revealed by the survey will be explored throughout this week in ITV News Central in the East and West Midlands.
Savanta ComRes interviewed 2,020 UK adults who live in the ITV Regions of Granada, Tyne Tees, Yorkshire and Central aged 18+ online in August 2020. Data were weighted to be representative of those regions combined by age, gender and region.
Savanta ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
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