This Thursday the House of Commons Privileges Committee released their report on their investigation into parties in Downing Street during Covid lockdown. The report condemned Boris Johnson, concluding that he must have been aware of what was happening and lying about it several times in Parliament. Sanctions including suspension for an unprecedented 90 days, and the denial of a parliamentary pass. We conducted nationally representative surveys both before and after the report’s release asking what should now happen to Boris Johnson, in response to this report and for his chances to return to politics in future.

Our first survey, for Roxhill’s Tomorrow’s Business newsletter, ask a nationally representative sample of 2,390 GB Adults on Tuesday 13th of June:

Q1.

Q1. On Friday Boris Johnson resigned as MP for Uxbridge after an investigation is said to have found that he misled parliament. Do you think he should eventually return to politics in the UK?

Yes: 17.2%
No: 59.4%
Not sure / PNTS: 23.4%

Full results

Q2. Do you think he will be able to return to politics in the UK?

Yes: 28.9%
No: 35.6%
Not sure / PNTS: 35.6%

Full results

Q3.  Do you think he would be successful if he did return?

Yes: 21.8%
No: 46.8%
Not sure / PNTS: 31.4%

Full results

Key points:

• Twice as many men (22.7%) think he should return Vs. women (11.9%).
• Millennials favour his return the least (5.2-8.7%), even less than Gen-Z (10%), compared to over 64s (35.7%)
• CON 2019 voters (43.5%), Leave voters (34%), Midlanders (23%), and working-class (22.9%) think he should return the most.
• Labour 2019 voters (1.9%), SNP voters (1.6%), Remain voters (5.8%) think he should return the least.
• Although they are more optimistic about his chances of success: Labour: 8.5%, SNP: 3.2%, Remain: 12.7%
• Nearly half (47.8%) of Scots think he won’t be able to return.

About the survey

Find Out Now interviewed 3,524 GB adults on 2023-06-13, and produced a sample of 2390 respondents which is nationally representative by: Gender, Age, Social Class, Region, Brexit Vote, and 2019 General Election. Prefer not to say answers are included in this process to help limit the effects of non-response bias on representation. For more information, please visit FAQ

After the report was released

Following the release of the report at 9am on Thursday 15th of June we ran a further poll asking a nationally representative sample of 2,581 GB Adults:

Q1. How should Boris Johnson be sanctioned by Parliament, if at all, now that the House of Commons Privileges Committee has found that he misled Parliament over parties held in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns? (Please select all that apply):

• Ban from being an MP in future: 52%
• Ban from joining the House of Lords: 49%
• Strip of parliamentary pass: 45%
• Suspend as an MP: 30%
• None of the above: 23%
• Prefer not to say: 13%

Respondents who voted for Boris and the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election answered:

• Ban from being an MP in future: 27%
• Ban from joining the House of Lords: 27%
• Strip of parliamentary pass: 23%
• Suspend as an MP: 17%
• None of the above: 48%
• Prefer not to say: 12%

We also asked for a free-text response to the following question:

Q2. What would you suggest should happen to him?

Having run the raw verbatim answers through ChatGPT to cleanse and categorise:

• Fined: 36%
• Banned from holding public office: 22%
• Imprisoned: 7%
• Left alone: 17%
• Other: 18%

About the survey

Find Out Now interviewed 3,524 GB adults on 2023-06-13, and produced a sample of 2390 respondents which is nationally representative by: Gender, Age, Social Class, Region, Brexit Vote, and 2019 General Election Prefer not to say answers are included in this process to help limit the effects of non-response bias on representation. For more information, please visit FAQ