How regional politicians can help restore trust in our political system - Julian Pearce

In one of a series of startling statistics, almost three quarters, 73 per cent, of voters felt ‘politicians don't care what people like them think’. This was up from 51 per cent just ahead of the 2019 general election – a massive swing in attitudes over just five years.

Looking at the North-South divide, the results are even more stark. Asked the question ‘How much do politicians care about your part of the country?’ those answering ‘not very much at all’ accounted for 44 per cent of Londoners against 86 per cent of Northerners. To have almost nine in every ten people believe that their government ‘doesn’t care’ is bad in anybody’s book.

These results won’t come as a surprise to many. In fact ‘politicians’ often come out on top of the list of ‘least trusted’ professions. In December last year, the annual survey carried out by Ipsos revealed that trust in politics was at a 40 year low.

In fact, just 9 per cent of those polled said they ‘trusted politicians to tell the truth’ down from an already risible 12 per cent in 2022.

And the subject of trust in politicians to deliver, is something I’ve seen first-hand in West Yorkshire and the Tees Valley this year. Yasper’s poll of 2,002 people in those areas, gave a less than glowing appraisal as to whether mayors were making respondents' lives better.

So what can be done to address this malaise and what can local and regional leaders do to promote trust? Well in order to look forward, we need to look back. How have we arrived in this situation where trust in politicians is seemingly in freefall and where apathy is the plat du jour?

Trust has been on the slide for some time, so to pretend that this is a recent phenomenon would be unfair. There have been many theories as to why the past years have seen such a rapid deterioration. Some have pointed to the US and the ‘post-truth era’ - a phrase popularised during the Trump presidency. The ability for politicians to lie to the degree that lines were genuinely blurred between fact and fiction.

We can’t lay all of the blame at the door of the Donald, but his influence does seem to have stretched far and wide, with social media providing a pathway to embedding misinformation.

Add in that we are now starting to see the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in politics, and the emergence of deep fakes, supposedly showing influential figures saying things that plainly weren’t said.

Getting to a point whereby we can no longer differentiate fact from fiction is a dangerous place to be when the stakes are so high.

And whilst technology can be a threat, it can also be an enabler. Politicians are more accessible than ever, with many taking to social media to get across their views and engage with their audiences. Like it or loathe it, politicians and the public have never been closer.

During the 2017 General Election I was part of a radio panel debate charged with the task of ‘building the perfect politician’. I recommended at that time that the perfect characteristic for anyone in public office was ‘authenticity’. I stand by that judgement and it’s a route to putting trust back in our political leaders.

Talking of which, we need to address the elephant in the room – levelling-up. Parliament itself has reported that just 10 per cent of allocated monies have been spent by councils. When a flagship policy has so demonstrably failed to improve lives, despite promises to the contrary, it’s no wonder we have a problem.

Ultimately, rebuilding trust in politics is something that cannot be achieved overnight. Losing trust can be instant, building it can take a generation. But regional politicians have a role to play. By building trust and strong relationships with the communities they serve, local politicians can clearly evidence the impact they have.

Our region has many excellent elected representatives, who can shine a beacon as the way forward. But in the end, trust is always built through delivering policy.

Arguably, what is needed in this country is a tough conversation between elected representatives and electorate. An end to sticking-plaster politics aimed at placating core voter blocks would go a long way to not only rebuilding trust, but setting the foundations for a brighter future for all.

Julian Pearce is founder of communications agency Yasper.