By 49% to 30%, Britons agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling that proroguing Parliament was unlawful

Matthew SmithHead of Data Journalism
September 24, 2019, 1:41 PM GMT+0

43% of Britons say that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should stand down

In a stinging rebuke to the Prime Minister earlier today, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled Boris Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament to be unlawful.

The judgement means that the House of Commons is open for business once again, with MPs now able to return to scrutinise, and likely further frustrate, Boris Johnson’s Brexit plans.

Johnson himself has said that he “strongly disagrees” with the ruling, but will respect it.

As with everything Brexit-related, the Supreme Court’s decision is divisive, with 49% of Britons agreeing with it and 30% disagreeing. The remaining 21% answered “don’t know”.

Unsurprisingly, agreement with the Court falls along partisan lines. While 78% of Remain voters concur with the decision the Court came to, just 22% of Leave voters say the same.

Likewise, only 22% of Conservative voters agree with the judgement, compared to 73% of Labour voters and 82% of Lib Dem voters.

With Boris Johnson having been found to have acted in an unlawful manner, some MPs have already called on him to resign.

Among the wider public, 43% of Britons think he should now step down as Prime Minister, while 39% think he should stay on.

Again, whether or not people think Boris Johnson should stay or go is highly partisan – only 18% of Conservative voters think the Prime Minister should go, compared to 67% of Labour voters and 71% of Lib Dem voters. It is also likely that the large majority of those who want the PM to step down already did so before the judgement of the Supreme Court was made known.

Photo: Getty

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