Findings show public trust in Government is at all time low

New findings by the National Centre for Social Research show that public trust in government and politicians is dropping further. 

The Centre’s recent webinar, ‘British Social Attitudes: Exploring today’s attitudes for tomorrow’s election’, and their newly published report “Five years of unprecedented challenges: The impact of the 2019-2024 Parliament on public opinion” showed our politics is more broken than ever.

How severe is the problem?

The findings of NatCen’s Research Director, Natalie Maplethorpe, established that 79% of people think Britain needs a great deal of improvement in how it is governed, a number that hasn’t been seen since the 2019 General Election. In addition, her research found that 45% of respondents said that they “almost never” trust the government to put the needs of the nation before the interests of their parties, the highest it has ever been. 

Responses to another question found that 58% “almost never” trust their MPs to tell the truth when put in a tight corner, with only 5% saying they trust their politicians “just about always” or “most of the time.”

Where is this despondency coming from, and why?

Some of the dissatisfaction and lack of trust is rooted in public concerns about the state of the NHS, brought about by a lack of resources and increased waiting times. The health service has seen dissatisfaction rates more than double from 25% in 2019 to 52% now, a new record high. 

Similarly, social care dissatisfaction has also increased over the same period of time, from 37% to 57% for similar reasons: staff shortages, increased mortality rates, and years of long-standing structural pressures to name a few. 

Distrust is also stemming from a dislike of politics. 53%, a record high, now say the voting system used to elect MPs should be altered ‘to allow smaller parties to get a fairer share of MPs’. Only 40% believe we should keep the current system ‘to produce effective government’. 

Trust is also damaged when voters' voices aren’t heard.

Research into the 2019 General Election has previously highlighted that 71% of all votes cast had no impact on the outcome of that election, either because they went to candidates who lost, or went into padding the majorities of winning MPs. 

As for the House of Lords, a recent poll by YouGov found that 34% of respondents would “strongly support” abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with an elected chamber, and another 25% said they’d “somewhat support” the change.

How does Brexit come into play?

Professor Sir John Curtice pointed out that, before Brexit,  those who wanted to remain in the EU were more likely to trust the government than those who wanted to leave it, however shortly after Brexit, these positions were reversed. However, more recently trust has decreased amongst both groups, with Remain voters having a 13% trust in government, and Leave voters 17%, with the gap lessening more every year. 

What does this say about our country’s democracy? 

We are living in a time where the accepted normal is distrust, dissatisfaction, and disconnect within our political system. 

Many people now believe our political system is in need of change - and so does Unlock Democracy.

It’s clear our politics is broken, and it’s up to the next government to reinvigorate our democracy.

We would like to see a bold plan to reform our broken political system. A fairer voting system, which guarantees that everyone’s vote counts and carries equal weight, would be a great start.

Written by Alexia Holliday, Intern at Unlock Democracy