PLMR INSIGHTS: UK population is happy for the lockdown to continue for almost two months longer

Daniel Baynes

Senior Account Director

New polling commissioned by PLMR has found that 25% of the UK population think that the Government should wait almost two months before easing the lockdown restrictions to tackle the spread of Covid-19. The findings were included in Politico’s London Playbook newsletter this morning.

Conducted by Censuswide, the poll asked: “In how many weeks do you think the government should ease the current lockdown restrictions, if at all?” Most respondents (25%) thought 6-7 weeks was the best option for the Government before easing lockdown measures, followed by 4-5 weeks (21%) and 3 weeks (16%). Just 7% of those surveyed believe that the lockdown should be eased in the next fortnight and only 10% were supportive of the lockdown continuing for over seven weeks.

The findings come as the Scottish Government published a framework for an exit strategy to achieve a “managed transition away from current restrictions”. In contrast, the UK Government has set five tests to be met before they will consider lifting lockdown measures.

Commenting on the findings, Kevin Craig, CEO & Founder of PLMR, said today:

“The timings on when to lift the lockdown measures is the most important political decision facing this Government and will have huge ramifications for both the health of the nation and our economy.

“These findings show that the lockdown still maintains strong public support and that there is no desire to rush the decision to relax the lockdown restrictions. PLMR is contributing to the debate through polling of the British public on the key issues related to the crisis, we hope these insights will be useful for policy-makers, the media and our clients to understand and navigate this difficult period.”

You can read the full findings here

The research was conducted by Censuswide, with 1,001 respondents aged 16+ in UK between 22.04.2020-23.04.2020. The survey was conducted from a nationally representative sample of UK adults. Quotas were applied to nationally representative proportions for age, gender and region. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society which is based on the ESOMAR principles. 

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