UK voters want politicians to face stronger checks and balances

Houses of Parliament with a streetlight in the foreground - Trust in politicians is at a low ebb and the health of the UK democracy matters as much to voters as issues such as crime and immigration, according to a new report by the UCL Constitution Unit. Published today, the report found that most voters believe stronger mechanisms are needed to ensure politicians follow the rules, with four out of five saying the current system needs reform so that politicians who do not act with integrity can be punished. The research team found overwhelming support for stronger independent regulators, with a majority wanting an independent regulator to be able to launch its own investigations into alleged ministerial wrongdoing. The wide-ranging report looked at survey responses from more than 4,000 people who were representative of the UK voting age population, conducted in August and September last year during the final stages of the Conservative leadership contest. The researchers found that trust in politicians was lower than it had been a year earlier, with about half (52%) believing that politicians had lower ethical standards than ordinary citizens. Only 5% thought politicians had higher ethical standards. The issues that respondents felt were most important in politics - assessed by asking which of two issues was more important to them - were the cost of living and the NHS, but the health of democracy in the UK was found to be on a par with issues such as the war in Ukraine, housing, crime and immigration.