Queen Elizabeth named one of the most influential people during coronavirus pandemic

11 June 2020

Queen Elizabeth II has been named one of the most influential people in the public eye during the coronavirus pandemic.

Queen Elizabeth

The British monarch found herself ranking above the likes of US President Donald Trump and First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon in the poll carried out by startrescue.co.uk.

The survey asked 4.5k respondents "Who in the public eye have been the most influential during lockdown?"

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was named at the top of the list with 24.1% of the vote.

One customer said: "Boris Johnson has remained realistic, supportive and informative throughout lockdown despite contracting the virus himself."

He is followed in second place by war veteran Captain Tom Moore (10%), who raised over £32 million for the NHS as he did laps of his garden to celebrate his 100th birthday.

The NHS staff themselves (9.7%), Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty (3.9%) and fitness guru Joe Wicks (3.7%) rounded off the rest of the top five.

Queen Elizabeth (1.7%) found herself in the top 10, just below Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock (2.3%) but about Sturgeon (1.6%), Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (1.5%) and Trump (1.1%).

Many celebrities, TV stars, journalists and presenters were also mentioned for their own impact during lockdown.

These included names such as 'Good Morning Britain' broadcaster Piers Morgan, 'After Life' actor Ricky Gervais, money expert Martin Lewis, 'Loose Women' star Stacey Solomon, musician Gary Barlow, Hollywood icon Tom Hanks and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

In a statement, Startrescue.co.uk said: "At a time where the rise of social media is said to have eclipsed the popularity of TV, it might come as a surprise that the majority of answers referenced within startrescue.co.uk's survey were either government bodies or personalities encountered regularly on the radio or television.

"The few social media influencers or YouTube stars who were featured include Irish YouTuber Jack Septiceye, parenting vlogger Louise Pentland, the beauty, fashion, and lifestyle vlogger Anastasia Kingsnorth and Canadian YouTube personality Linus Sebastian."