Brits don’t trust politicians. Could a Welsh plan to ban lying in politics help turn that around?

Brits do not trust politicians.

The profession regularly polls as the worst-regarded in the UK, with just 9% of the public convinced that they “tell the truth”.

That’s a worse rating than the proportion of the public who trust hucksters like journalists (21%) and estate agents (28%).

But could a new accountability mechanism help reverse our dire view of parliamentarians?

Under recommendations being made to the Welsh government, members of the Senedd could lose their seats if they lie.

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The devolved parliament’s Standards of Conduct Committee wants the Senedd to replace an existing instruction to “act truthfully” with an explicit ban on false statements. Members of the Senedd (MSs) who flout these rules could be subjected to a referendum-style “recall” vote.

The changes would also make it a criminal offence for candidates in elections to making a false statement to win votes.

The Welsh government has yet to accept the recommendations. But transparency campaigners have welcomed the move.

“It’s a creative solution to one of the big problems of our time in politics, which is a perceived lack of accountability for politicians,” said Dr Parth Patel, from the IPPR.

“Trust has collapsed – it is at a rock bottom in this country. We’re all trying to figure out what to do about that… but this is an interesting way of tackling the question.”

How would the proposed Welsh rule banning politicians from lying actually work?

From electoral mudslinging to unfalsifiable figures, politics is filled with half-truths and exaggerations. But this kind of deception is hard to police.

In Westminster, a code of conduct for ministers dictates that “holders of public office should be truthful”. It’s not law; convention dictates that ministers who break the code should resign, but they don’t always do so.

MPs can be found in “contempt of parliament” if they are caught “deliberately attempting to mislead the House or a committee”.

But it’s a high standard of proof: in 2021, a court order showed that prime minister Boris Johnson “misled parliament over coronavirus contracts”. He survived the scandal.

“In Westminster, most of the responsibility falls on the House of Commons and the political party. Someone might say something that is a lie or proven to be a lie and then the speaker of the political party they belong too might reprimand them. That’s generally it,” Dr Patel told Big Issue.

“It depends on the scale of the lie, because a lie endangering national security would have different consequences, but generally it’s a little big wishy-washy and a little bit weak, we don’t have a very clear mechanism.”

The suggestions before the Welsh government would formalise penalties for liars in politics, strengthening its code of conduct to explicitly ban misleading statements.

If a member flouted this rule, the committee said they should be asked to retract the lie. A correction would then be placed on their profile on the Senedd website.

In extreme cases, the MS could be “recalled and removed” by voters and replaced with another member of their party.

“The committee isn’t actually recommending that politician should be automatically chucked out of the Senedd if they have lied,” explained Tom Brake from Unlock Democracy.

“What they’re recommending is that there should be a clear mechanism for requiring a politician to correct the record and that should then be properly publicised… if they fail to do that there are further sanctions.”

It’s “not as radical” as some proposals considered (and ultimately rejected) by the committee. These included making deliberate deception a criminal offence.

“We thought that would probably cause more problems than it would solve,” added Brake – explaining that the difficulty of criminally prosecuting “slippery” speech could further erode trust in the system.

Juliet Swann from Transparency International UK echoed this concern.

“Declining levels of public trust in politicians and our democratic institutions should concern us all,” she said. “But reforms must not unintentionally further undermine people’s faith in the system.”

The new rules on lying would apply outside of parliament, too – a UK first. And lying to gain an electoral advantage could become a criminal offense.

Is banning lying enough to restore trust in politics?

Strengthening parliamentary codes of conduct is a good idea, said Tom Brake.

“There’s a loss of trust and how politicians behave is clearly part of the problem. The 2009 expenses scandal is a good illustration of that, and more recently, the VIP fast lane for PPE contracts is another example,” he added.

Transparency International UK found that 135 of the PPE contracts awarded during the pandemic had “warning signs” of a risk of corruption. The contracts were worth some £15bn. At the same time, leaks about lockdown parties shattered the public’s faith in politicians.

But politician’s behaviour isn’t the only contributing factor. The flood of foreign money into UK politics is one aspect. Social media has amplified disinformation. And – perhaps most crucially – the social contract might just be falling apart. People don’t feel like politics ‘works’ for them anymore.

Just 17% of people in the UK indicate they are very satisfied with how the political system is functioning, King’s College London research shows – among the lowest of 23 countries analysed and on a par with satisfaction in Russia (16%).

It’s unsurprising, given the state of the economy. About one in four adults (22.9%) in Great Britain found it fairly or very difficult to get by financially in the past month, recent ONS data shows.

Wages have been on the downturn for years: The Trades Union Congress (TUC) estimates that, had wages grown at trends prior to the 2008 financial crisis, the average worker would be more than £14,000 a year better off than they currently are. And a decade and a half of Tory austerity has gutted public services.

“I think another factor when it comes to trust has to do with economics,” Brake said. “The financial crash in 2008/2009 left people financially worse off. And frankly, in recent years, there has been a failure of a series of government to deliver improvements in the standard of living.”

“Addressing the trust issue and politicians is part of the problem but it has to go hand-in-hand with making people feel more in their daily lives and addressing challenges like the cost of living.”

It can have severe consequences, with disaffected voters far more likely to turn to extreme, populist solutions.

“People’s disappointment is clearly reflected in the polls,” Brake added. “For example, recent polls that young people see a ‘Strong Man’ to be the solution to our political difficulties.”

According to YouGov, Reform UK voters have significantly less trust in professions and institutions than other voters. They’re 20% less likely to trust key professions and institutions than other voters – with just 6% saying they trust MPs. Suspicion is catching: Just 52% trust school teachers, and 42% trust local police officers.

“Trust is a form of hope, hope that someone on the other end of a bargain will uphold their end of things. That’s the fundamental basis of our form of politics. So representative democracy – and all our key institutions – kind of dissolve without that,” said Dr Patel.

“To some extent, that’s what Reform UK are selling – an extreme program of political reform. They’re saying the institutions as they are currently arranged cannot hold. We need to get rid of the rule of law, expand executive power. So to tackle that, do we need to package an equivalently radical reform agenda to rebuild trust?”

Initiatives like those currently being considered by the Senedd can go part of the way. But until politics starts delivering, distrust in our elected officials will remain high.

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