Pollwatch: No care for care homes?

The latest polling from Savanta ComRes looks at protecting care homes from coronavirus and whether the UK Government prioritised saving lives or the economy in responding to the pandemic.

Two in five say that the Government ‘made a lot of mistakes’ in how they handled the pandemic last March (38%)

• Two-thirds (63%) UK adults say the Government did not do enough to protect care homes from coronavirus at the start of the pandemic
• This includes three in five Conservative voters (59%), and almost three-quarters of those aged 55+ (71%)
• Two in five Britons say the Government made a lot of mistakes at the start of the pandemic last March (38%)
• Half say the Government prioritised the economy more than saving lives at the start of the pandemic (48%), compared to a third who said the same of 2021 (33%)

Two-thirds UK adults say that the Government did not do enough (63%) to protect care homes from coronavirus at the start of the pandemic last year. Worryingly for the Conservatives, this includes three in five of their own voters from 2019 (59%), and almost three-quarters of those aged 55+ (71%).

Elsewhere in the poll, two in five say that the Government ‘made a lot of mistakes’ in how they handled the pandemic last March (38%), while a similar proportion say they ‘made some mistakes’ (43%).

Just one in eight Britons say the Government ‘did not make many mistakes’ (12%) at the start of the pandemic last March.

Much has been made about whether government’s, including the UK government, have had to choose between prioritising saving lives and protecting the economy.

Britons are twice as likely to say that, at the start of the pandemic, the Government prioritised the economy more than saving lives (48%), than saving lives over the economy (26%).

However, for Britons, by Winter 2020 this had reversed and two in five say the Government prioritised saving lives more than the economy (38%), with a third saying the opposite (32%).

And, by 2021, a quarter of Britons say that the Government prioritised both saving lives and the economy ‘equally’ (26%), higher than at any other point.

Full data tables can be found here.