The battle for trust in politics is being lost

Keir Starmer declared shortly after winning the general election that ‘the fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era’. Based on the findings of the latest British Social Attitudes survey, that battle is being comprehensively lost. Trust in politics has not recovered since Labour took office, and on most scores has got even worse, plummeting to new, record lows.

The renowned annual survey found only 12% of people trust government to put country before party, an all-time low. It also shows just 5% trust politicians to tell the truth in a tight corner - levels only previously seen in 2023 - with 59% of respondents 'almost never' inclined to believe what politicians say.

This is no flash in the pan. Poll after poll has been telling a similar story for some time, which is why the government’s complacency is even more perplexing. A forthcoming report from Unlock Democracy gives an unfavourable assessment of Labour’s first-year progress on its manifesto pledges to rebuild public trust. Improving living standards may be the surest long-term route to renewed faith in politics, but evidence from other countries suggests single-minded delivery on the economy - itself a tall order - may not be enough to save Labour at the ballot box.

Loss of trust brought down Boris Johnson, causing lasting reputational damage from which subsequent Conservative governments never recovered. The Liz Truss mini budget set the seal on Labour’s general election victory, but the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal and Partygate laid its foundations. Yet almost one year on, we’ve seen very little action to back up the tough talk we heard from Labour in opposition.

Less than a month ago, a Labour minister claimed Downing Street was “restoring confidence in government.” Survey evidence shows that statement for what it is: wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Warm words count for nothing unless met with firm action.

Clamping down properly on MPs’ second jobs, outlawing freebies above a nominal value, and sealing the revolving door between government and lobbying are obvious places to start. As well as signalling a clean break with the past, such changes can be effected without major parliamentary wrangling. Labour could, of its own accord, set the standard for other parties to follow.

Tackling the “strong whiff of corruption” from the House of Lords - as Dr Robert Saunders described it at a recent Unlock Democracy webinar - is a more complicated task. But report stage of the Bill to abolish Hereditary Peers is a perfect opportunity to make progress.

Amendments to limit the number of peers and the power of Prime Ministers to stack the Lords with cronies and donors (by strengthening the House of Lords Appointments Commission) would pass comfortably with government backing - not to mention carry major public support. Ensuring peers guilty of serious misconduct get permanently kicked out of the Lords would be another reasonably uncontentious change.

Taken together, this package of change could be delivered by Christmas. With 79% of the public wanting significant change to the way Britain is governed, it would show the government has got the message.

Political legitimacy would remain a problem - in both the Commons and Lords. Factoring in turnout, only 1 in 5 registered voters backed Labour at the last general election, yet the party came away with two thirds of the seats in the Commons and the second largest majority for any single party in a century. Meanwhile, the nearly 6 million Green and Reform voters - more than 20% of those that voted - were left with just 9 seats between them. Voters have moved on from two-party politics, but the system has yet to catch up. 

No surprise, then, that support for electoral reform has reached an all-time high. 6 in 10 people, including a majority of voters for every party, now back Proportional Representation over the present voting system. Establishing an independent commission tasked with examining the options for reform, as called for by the APPG for Fair Elections, is another step the government could take without getting bogged down in Parliament. 

The same is also true for Labour’s promised consultation on the future shape of the House of Lords. We know how little the public thinks of the Lords - YouGov reports just 1 in 5 people have any degree of confidence in the upper chamber. Kickstarting the process of review carries few risks.

Inaction, however, or an unwillingness to take the warning signs seriously, brings huge risks. You only need to look to the USA for the threat posed to democratic institutions when public disenchantment with ‘politics as normal’ reaches a tipping point, and voters are prepared to try almost anything to shake up the system.

Trust is the lifeblood of democracy. Even if the government is unwilling to engage in more systemic - but no less necessary - surgery, small but significant changes in the here and now could help to staunch the bleeding. Fail to act, and it’s not just Labour’s hopes of reelection in peril, but democracy itself.

This blog was first published to politics.co.uk.