’Cummings effect’ led to loss of confidence in UK Government

Public confidence in the UK Government's ability to handle the Covid-19 pandemic dropped sharply following the news that Dominic Cummings, senior aide to the Prime Minister, had seemingly broken lockdown rules, finds new analysis by UCL researchers. The research, published in The Lancet , analysed data from the UCL Covid-19 Social Study, looking at over 220,000 survey results from more than 40,000 individuals between 24 April and 11 June to ascertain the negative impact of the news that Cummings had travelled 420km with his wife (who had suspected Covid-19) and child during lockdown. They found a clear decrease in confidence starting on 22 May (when the story initially broke) and continuing to fall quickly in the days following. Launched in the week before lockdown started, the UCL Covid-19 Social Study is an ongoing study on (UKRI). It is the UK's largest study into how adults are feeling about the lockdown, government advice and overall wellbeing and mental health. Respondents were asked how much confidence they had in the government's handling of the epidemic from one (not at all) to seven (lots). Between 21-25 May, it dropped in England by approximately 0.4 points on this scale.