Trust in government falling as public concerned about future, finds survey

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The British public are highly distrustful of the government and a growing number view it as “completely ineffective” at improving the country, according to a survey.

Trust in the government has fallen to 30 per cent, according to communication firm Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer, a 15-point fall since 2021.

The survey of 1,150 adults also found 69 per cent believe that the government “serves the interests of only certain groups”, while three in five people said it was a “completely ineffective agent of positive change”.

The findings from the annual survey, carried out last November, come as voters across the UK prepare for an election at some stage this year, with Labour tipped as the likely winners at the upcoming poll.

The UK is among the least trusted of all 28 countries surveyed, tied with Argentina and Japan.

In a five percentage point increase since 2022, 65 per cent said they felt society was changing too quickly and not for the better.

More than 70 per cent said the country needed “forceful reformers” to bring about “much-needed change”.

The survey also found that there was a significant lack of confidence in the ability of regulators to oversee new technologies.

It comes as the UK government and the rest of the world try to assess the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence, an area of particular interest to tech enthusiast Rishi Sunak.

The Prime Minister heralded the success of an AI summit in Bletchley Park last November, with the survey data carried out in the immediate aftermath of the event.

But 66 per cent of British people said “government regulators lack adequate understanding of emerging technologies to regulate them effectively”.

Seventy per cent said that chief executives should “develop and deliver new technologies and innovations slowly and with great care to reduce the chances that they will have harmful consequences”.

Ruth Warder, chief executive of Edelman UK, said: “This year’s Trust Barometer shows that people feel the world is moving too quickly, in ways they don’t understand, and will leave them behind.

“People need leaders, ideas, and information that inspire hope and help them navigate our changing world, from technology to climate change.

“This has never been more critical in a year when more than half the world’s population will go to the ballot box and we all start to see the transformative impact of artificial intelligence.”