SUPPORT for the Conservative government has fallen since Boris Johnson ditched his “stay home” message that led to regional leaders ignoring his changes to the lockdown.

The Prime Minister, who changed the national advice to the “stay alert” message on May 10, wrote in the Mail on Sunday that more complicated messages were needed during the next phase of the response to the outbreak.

But a poll for the Observer showed today that the proportion of people who approve of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak fell by nine to 39 per cent in the last week. 

The loss of support came as 114 more people died in the UK of coronavirus-linked causes. The overall number of deaths has reached 34,636.

Mr Johnson has told Tory MPs that he wants Britain to return to “near normality” by July.

Over the weekend however council leaders in Manchester, Newcastle and Gateshead joined education unions in vowing to resist government plans to reopen schools from June 1.

Liverpool city council and Hartlepool council have written to parents last week to say they are also unlikely to reopen schools.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham suggested that Mr Johnson had sowed disunity among regions by not giving leaders outside the capital notice of his lockdown changes.

He said: “In Greater Manchester, we had no real notice of the measures. On the eve of a new working week, the PM was on TV ‘actively encouraging’ a return to work.

“Even though that would clearly put more cars on roads and people on trams, no-one in government thought it important to tell the cities who’d have to cope with that.”

Devolved nations of Scotland and Wales have also ignored the move in England to a “stay alert” recommendation.