ONE in five adults stopped following lockdown rules as strictly in the week after the Dominic Cummings scandal broke, new figures reveal.

And one in three of this group say the PM's aide is the reason.

Polling has already revealed how Boris Johnson's popularity has nosedived over his handling of the Cummings affair.

The Brexit campaigner and his family left London for Durham despite showing coronavirus signs and even took a drive to Barnard Castle. 

That, the advisor said, was to test his eyesight.

The cabinet has insisted Cummings did nothing wrong, despite police confirming evidence of a breach of rules put in place by the UK Government to protect lives.

Now findings from pollsters YouGov show the impact that's had on public compliance with those rules.

The drop is most dramatic amongst younger people, with almost one third of those agved 18-24 and a quarter of 25-49-year-olds saying they are now following the rules less strictly than before.

The UK Government has suggested that complaince would drop as time went on.

But critics of its handling of the Cummings row — including devolved administrations — have raised serious fears about the message it sends on the importance of the virus control measures, and the penalties for breaching them.

Meanwhile, as lockdown lifts in England at a more rapid pace than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the proportion of people who think the crisis is easing has gone from 58% to 76% over two weeks.

But while there is increasing pressure from senior Conservative MPs and some businesses to reduce the 2m social distancing rule to 1.5m, a snap poll by YouGov has found that the public oppose this by 49% to 37%.