Nicola Sturgeon: 'I would trade away approval ratings for Covid-19 to disappear'

Nicola Sturgeon has said she would “trade away” her high poll numbers for Covid-19 to no longer be an issue as a new poll gave her a net approval rating lead of 109 over Boris Johnson.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has seen very high approval ratings in a recent poll

The poll, undertaken by IpsosMori, showed 72 per cent of Scots are satisfied with the First Minister in her current job, with only 24 per dissatisfied, giving her a net satisfaction rating of 49.

Boris Johnson’s approval levels are at a net rating of -58 as just 19 per cent of Scots are satisfied with his performance and 76 per cent dissatisfied.

Labour leader Keir Starmer is the only leader of any of the parties other than Ms Sturgeon to gain a positive net satisfaction rating (16 per cent), although nearly a third do not have an opinion on him.

Speaking at her daily coronavirus briefing, she refused to comment on the opinion poll but added that the people of Scotland wanted to see “clear and frank” leadership about the challenges facing the country in regards to Covid-19.

She said: “They want me to, I think, take firm decisions even if those decisions are unpopular, and not to shy away from the tough decisions and that is what I will try to do.

"They also want leaders...to be frank about the things we get wrong.

"I have got things wrong in this pandemic, I will get things wrong in the future, I am not infallible.

“But the reason I stand here each day is to try and share with you the factors that we have to weigh up, the processes that lead to our decisions and the reasons for those decisions and be frank when we get things wrong.

"I am a politician and nobody would believe me if I stood here and said I didn’t pay any attention to opinion polls, but you know what, right now, I would trade away approval ratings to get rid of Covid.”

In the same poll, new leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie received net satisfaction ratings of -17, -25 and -1 respectively.

However, each had around 40 per cent of people saying they held no opinion in a sign opposition is potentially struggling to cut through.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism.

Subscribe to scotsman.com and enjoy unlimited access to Scottish news and information online and on our app. Visit https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions now to sign up.

By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Joy Yates

Editorial Director