The demolition of public trust in politics can be laid at the door of all politcal parties – even the ones doing well.
So, it’s odd we don’t often hear that old teaching and parenting cliché,
“Honesty is the best policy”.
Still the fact that politicians have had a centuries’ long bad reputation when it comes to telling the truth, has not dented the widely expressed feeling that we have never experienced as were are now such a low of public trust in politics – not just in the UK but globally.
The electorate were promised something different.
Having been cleared of breaking Covid rules at a Labour beer and curry gathering in Durham, Keir Starmer made a speech in which he, happily rounded on the Conservative Government and Boris Johnson – a man whose propensity to be ‘economical with the actualité’ was known before he became Prime Minister – and endeavoured to set himself, as Labour leader, apart:
“What you will always get from me is someone who believes honesty and integrity matter”
This theme resonated, and amplified over the next two years.
For a Conservative Party struggling under the weight of scandals and in-fighting here was an alternativebeing offered to a noticeably frustrated electorate. Here was a politician who the closer he came to power extended his personal piety to any future Government he might lead, where
“truth means something and where honesty is at the heart of everything that it does… honesty and integrity matter. You will always get that from me”
At the time, I heard that as a Conservative party foot-soldier and thought that promise of a more open and honest future in office was going to be a powerful one, that it would resonate far louder than our – as it turns out completely correct – counter
“He has no plan”
So now he’s Prime Minister and has been for 10 months.
Contrary to the views of some, throughout the decade I worked alongside Andrew Neil at the BBC he was equally fair but forensic with every party. So notwithstanding that there are plenty of past examples of Conservatives and politicians of other parties lying, even I was struck by the fury with which my former colleague recently excoriated Starmer and his government.
He wasn’t just calling the Prime Minister a liar and laying out the evidence for that – he was suggesting the entire Labour Government and it’s communications to date had seemingly collectively decided to make mendacity their policy.
In truth, the objective evidence suggests that honesty and integrity is not at the heart of everything this government does. If your response is ‘well neither was the last Government’, I’m afraid that still doesn’t absolve the current one.
Not so long ago I highlighted on ConHome my disbelief that the current Government would insist on telling people straight faced that they have: ‘fixed the foundations of the economy, inherited from the Tories a £22billion black hole, secured our borders, and protected ‘working people’s’ jobs and (an early one) didn’t raise National Insurance because they said they wouldn’t’ – that’s leaving out a whole other list from baffled betrayed businesses to WASPI women who feel they were sold a pup never mind a PIP.
In the last ten months these ‘lines-to-take’ (or should that be lies-to-take?) – have gone from “strong message here’ to increasingly feeble life rafts since practically everybody but dyed-in-the wool Labourites can see they are the exact opposite of evidential truth.
My recent personal bugbears are: I know that whatever they say, there was no necessity to give away the Chagos Islands. The risks of not doing a deal had remained unchanged since my time in the Foreign Office and the ‘necessity’ argument made since is totally bogus. And I know they know that.
Then, claiming to have halved net migration in a year – half of which they weren’t in power and that was actually down to measures the last Government put in place – the majority of which were opposed by the people now claiming credit.
When Labour says the Tories didn’t tell the truth, that Farage is making up policy and numbers and shouldn’t be trusted, I want them to all line up in front of a mirror – rather than The Mirror – and take a long hard look at themselves.
Do I think Reform are currently offering the moon-on-a-stick, backed up by back-of-a-fag-packet numbers and even privately no real idea how you would really make it all happen in Government? Yes, but on that charge The Conservatives get hit equally hard, and deservedly so, for having promised things themselves, all of which people cared about – and they did not manage to deliver them.
There is still a feeling among some that the Conservatives have not apologised enough yet, or accepted exactly why so many stayed at home or voted for someone and something else. There is a notable crowd who won’t be satisfied until the entire party leadership says “Brexit was a mistake and we should rejoin” – which they are never going to get – I’d bet 12 years of fishing rights that never happens. However honestly acknowledging failures in all sorts of other areas especially immigration, and being sorry for failing, may indeed still be required.
Now, the clamour from the Conservative party membership to the new-ish leadership is “show us what you think we stand for, and let’s see some policy” It’s our survey so I make no apology for mentioning it, the numbers calling for faster revelation of policy direction grow by the month.
In a bad polling position, left behind by the Reform surge, still caught in electorate distrust, and quietly stalked by the one-time-Coalition junior partners I have to say I see merit in one policy Kemi Badenoch has been using more and more. It’s risky, and it may not cut through but it must be worth trying, if, unlike Starmer, you can stick to it consistently and get the respect that comes with “at least she tells the truth”.
Confronted with a week where Labour became a media flak-magnet the Tories came in fourth in a poll. She responded on GB News:
“I’m going to fight through this. But the reason why it’s tough is because we’re not giving the easy answers. We are telling the truth….I could have thrown out lots of policies to move up in the polls, but I’m not going to lie.”
And as Farage did his best to shed his roots and become a working class hero – and to be fair I’m not sure how effective pointing out his very middle class background really is for a panicked Labour – Badenoch tweeted about his speech:
“I was elected to tell the truth. So I only announce policies that are costed, clear, or save money—anything else is a lie. Our country can turn itself around, but not with empty promises.”
So perhaps honesty could be the best Conservative policy right now.
It’s a hard road, because we know from Starmer it can be easily tossed aside when things get tough. We know from the past that the Tories have been guilty of hiding the truth. We know from Farage that right now why would he feel making empty promises is either going badly or can be proven empty?
But if it’s the long haul she’s in for, despite the whispers she hasn’t much time, then I can see the logic in ‘don’t dress it up tell them the truth’. If it is consistent then it is accepted as authentic, and that’s no mean currency now. You might then overcome a political truism that might not actually be true:
‘that the voters can’t handle the truth and if you actually told them they’d vote for someone else.’
The last person to privately but confidently tell me that is now Mayor of London.
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