Just One Per Cent of Voters Say Rishi Sunak’s Government is ‘Very Honest’

Just one per cent of voters believe Rishi Sunak’s administration is “very honest” according to an exclusive new poll for Byline Times, revealing huge mistrust in the current government.

The Prime Minister last year claimed that he was “delivering” on his promise to restore “integrity, professionalism and accountability” to Downing Street.

However, a poll conducted by pollsters We Think for Byline Times at the end of December, suggests he has a very long way to go to convince voters of this.

Asked to what extent, if at all, they would describe the current Government as being either honest, or corrupt, 57% of voters said they would describe them as being corrupt. 

Among all voters 27% described them as being quite corrupt, compared to 30% who described them as very corrupt.

Voters are much less likely to see Sunak’s administration as being honest.

Among all voters just one per cent were willing to describe the Government as being ‘very honest’ with only a further 11% describing them as ‘quite honest’.

Even among Conservative voters, just four per cent said they would be willing to describe them as being very honest.

This widespread distrust in Downing Street is echoed by voters’ response to the Prime Minister’s claim to the Covid Inquiry last month to have been unable to recover any of his WhatsApp messages from the time of the pandemic.

According to our poll just 23% of voters believe his excuse for failing to provide the messages, compared to 77% who disbelieve him.

Separate polling conducted for Byline by We Think this week confirms this broad anti-politics feeling among the public.

According to the poll, 70% of voters say they are inclined to believe that politicians in Westminster are “in it for themselves” compared to just 12% who believe they are “devoted to serving the British people”.

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The Prime Minister on Thursday suggested that he would call a general election in the second half of this year.

However, our polling suggests that the apparent collapse in trust in the Government’s honesty is reflected in voters’ expectations of their future performance, should they win another term.

Asked whether they believed another Conservative government would make their life better, just 16% said they thought it would, compared to 48% who said it would make it worse and 36% who said it would make no difference at all.

Despite being somewhat more optimistic about the prospects of a Labour government, voters appear split on whether it will make a meaningful difference to their lives, however.

Asked how a Labour government would impact them 39% said they believed it would make their lives better compared to 31% who said it would make their lives worse and 30% who said it would make no difference at all.

However, according to separate polling conducted this week by We Think, there is still significant optimism among voters about the upcoming general election.

Asked how they felt about the outcome of that general election, 47% said they felt ‘hopeful’, compared to 30% who said they felt ‘fearful’ and just 22% who said they felt ‘apathetic.’

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Adam Bienkov also writes the Bienkov Briefing column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.

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