Boris Johnson's favorability plunges as Rishi Sunak dominates British politics: Report

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the popularity of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fading, British Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reportedly acquired the public confidence by showcasing calm and competence. As per the New York Times report, Sunak has been on the rise since the beginning of this year by intervening rapidly to spend billions of pounds to support jobs while the nation’s economy was crashing due to the impact of lockdowns. 

The son-in-law of the Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, Sunak was virtually unknown until in Britain until 10 months ago. However, British politics has now witnessed a surprising rise. Meanwhile, the approval ratings of Johnson have reportedly recorded a decrease during the pandemic.

NYT quoted a professor of politics at the Queen Mary University of London Tim Bale saying that the British Chancellor has the strengths that UK PM “conspicuously lacks”. Bale added, “ not only basic competence, but a grasp of detail...and no one has mounted such an obvious, in your face, social media campaign as Rishi Sunak.”

As per the recent poll of party members by UK PM’s Conservative Home website, the media outlet said that the 40-year-old Sunak ranked top of the cabinet satisfaction ratings. However, Johnson was trailing at the bottom of the list. Meanwhile, a poll conducted by Tim Bale in December 2019 had revealed that ‘just five out of 1,191 named Rishi Sunak’. Bale even said, “I'm not sure that all of them spelt his name correctly.” Fast-forwarding to October 2020, Sunak has now become the “beacon of calm and competence”.

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Johnson’s unveils three-tier approach

In the wake of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed the plan of the new three-tier lockdown system. Johnson gave a statement to parliament on October 12 following enhanced consultations with the local leaders of the affected regions especially England. To slow the spread of COVID-19, months after it reached Britain, the government unveiled the “traffic light” system at the House of Commons. 

The third-tier measures are the most severe ones to be imposed in those areas as people will be ordered to not have any physical contact with anyone except their household. For the areas of England, pubs, bars, and restaurants where an uptick of COVID-19 cases is recorded will also be closed. Meanwhile, for tier-one areas, the British citizens will follow the “rule of six” on public gatherings and practice social distancing. Tier two will prohibit households from mixing in homes, gardens, pubs, bars or even restaurants. 

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