Almost half the British public are unlikely to follow any tighter Covid rules in the wake of the scandal over alleged Christmas parties in Downing Street.

       Forty-six per cent of respondents to a new YouGov poll said they were very or somewhat unlikely to follow hypothetical new rules restricting mixing between households. The same percentage said that they would be likely to follow such rules.

       Of those unlikely to comply, 21 per cent – 10 per cent of all those surveyed – said their reason was the Government not sticking to its own rules.

       It was the most common explanation given, with a further 17 per cent saying they wanted to keep seeing their friends and family and 15 per cent wanting to move on from Covid.

       The poll found that 70 per cent of British people had little to no confidence in Boris Johnson to make the right decisions on Covid – a 10 per cent increase since July.

       On Wednesday, the Government announced that it was introducing "Plan B" measures, including further mandatory mask-wearing in public and advice for people to work from home where possible.

       So far, it has held back from restoring restrictions on interaction between households – and the poll suggests ministers might struggle to enforce such measures if they deemed them necessary.

       Lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs have this week questioned the Government's moral authority in the Commons.

       On Wednesday, Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said: "Why should people at home listening to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State do things that people working in Number 10 Downing Street are not prepared to do?"

       Mr Johnson's scientific advisers have tried to separate the fallout from the political scandal and the need for new Covid regulations. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, said on Wednesday that people's anger should be "kept very separate in their minds" from the logic behind Covid restrictions.

       Last August, researchers at UCL found a clear loss of trust in the Government after the Barnard Castle affair, in which Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson's chief adviser, refused to resign after breaching lockdown rules.

       A YouGov survey in the aftermath found that one third of people who had started breaking lockdown rules in the previous month mentioned Mr Cummings as a reason for doing so.