Boris Johnson’s bike trip has made it tougher for police to implement guidelines, ballot finds

The majority of the British public assume Boris Johnson’s controversial bike trip seven miles from residence throughout lockdown has undermined the police’s job of implementing coronavirus restrictions, in line with a ballot.

The prime minister was noticed exercising in east London’s Olympic Park final week regardless of guidelines introduced by his authorities dictating that train ought to solely be taken domestically.

In response to accusations of double requirements, a No 10 spokesperson mentioned Mr Johnson had not damaged authorities steerage.

The police commissioner Cressida Dick expressed the identical perception, telling BBC Radio 4 that his journey was not “against the law”.

In her interpretation of the measure, Ms Dick mentioned individuals may train “from your front door and come back to your front door”.

But a YouGov survey, commissioned by Crest Advisory, against the law and justice consultancy, discovered that 63 per cent of individuals thought the prime minister’s actions had made the police’s job tougher. Three-quarters of Labour and Liberal-Democrat supporters took this place, as did 48 per of those that favour the Conservatives.

Of the 1,566 adults surveyed in England and Wales, 36 per cent of them mentioned it might make issues “much harder” for police, whereas 27 per cent agreed it might make enforcement “a little harder”. Just beneath a 3rd of individuals disagreed, saying the journey wouldn’t have any impact on policing.

In separate findings, there was additionally broad assist for the police taking a harder stance on enforcement, whereas 48 per cent of respondents had been “very comfortable” with the thought of night curfews to forestall individuals socialising.

On the general public’s view of policing throughout the pandemic, Harvey Redgrave, the pinnacle of Crest Advisory, mentioned: “Our polling shows there continues to be broad-based support for how the police are approaching enforcement of the current lockdown.”

Mr Johnson’s cycling journey got here greater than 9 months after his former aide Dominic Cummings broke lockdown restrictions to journey from London to Durham, a journey many imagine induced lockdown compliance to drop.