Voters Don't Trust Politicians

Ipsos MORI have published their latest Veracity Index survey on public trust in various professions, and it doesn't reflect well on our elected officials. Trust in politicians has fallen by 7% since 2021, putting the proportion of respondents trusting them at 12%. This is the lowest figure on Ipsos' records and makes politicians the least trusted profession in the UK. Taking a broad view, however, can provide more context to such dramatic headlines. This is less a flash in the pan of hostility towards politicians and better reflects a long-term absence of trust in politicians. This is not a new problem.

That being said, the 7% shift is drastic, and likely outside of the margin for error. Perhaps the drop can be explained by the timing of the polls. This year's research was conducted just as Rishi Sunak replaced Truss: with the government suffering lows of approval ratings, and Truss's downfall perhaps appearing like a political distraction from politicians. Meanwhile, the events of partygate and the political instability of the past year can't have helped.

There is also a breakdown of results by party, which certainly make interesting reading. Below are the figures for the five most trusted and five least for each party. With the figure for government ministers also added to the Conservative column for comparison.

The profession with the largest divergence by party support is, unsurprisingly, union officials who are trusted by 65% of Labour voters and 29% of Conservatives. Meanwhile, the difference in support for politicians generally and government ministers is also striking, if somewhat explainable by each party's relative attitudes to the current government. Each party's most trusted profession also differs, with nurses being most popular for Labour voters and museum curators topping the Conservatives' table.

Last and certainly not least, it's worth pointing to public trust in pollsters. Pollsters come twentieth out of thirty, above bankers, landlords and journalists yet below lawyers and civil servants. 57% of Labour voters trust pollsters, to just 44% of Conservatives. A glance at recent polls is all it would take to understand that divergence...