Reflections on trust for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party

Credit: Victoria Jones - PA Images

Trust in government is one of the most important foundations upon which political systems are built. Over the last 20 years, trust has also become a buzzword in communications. But the pandemic has eroded the bonds of trust between the public and institutions. And this poses problems for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.  

An accusation often thrown at Starmer is that his party responds to public opinion, rather than shaping it. This has been an understandable strategy for the past 12 months, given the prevailing consensus that a global pandemic isn’t the time for partisan political point-scoring. 

However, as the UK emerges from the pandemic people will expect more from Labour. It will be the perfect time to build the public’s trust.

The coronavirus crisis has shown how trust can be established through a track record of competency. 

Last month, Keir Starmer vowed that a Labour Government would “create a new partnership between an active government and enterprising business”. As the party develops and articulates its vision for a post-coronavirus economy, there are many lessons in trust to be learnt from the experiences of enterprising businesses over the past year.

During the pandemic, corporates previously underappreciated by the public found themselves at the heart of shared efforts to deal with the challenges posed by coronavirus. Many have been able to capitalise upon this renewal of positive sentiment by building trust. 

Research conducted by Kekst CNC saw members of the public asked whether they thought a number of institutions had done well or badly in responding to coronavirus. In response, supermarkets were rated almost as highly rated as the NHS, with these institutions receiving 85% and 88% net ‘well’ scores respectively. This makes sense when considered alongside some of the core levers of trust, as theorised by British philosopher Onora O’Neill. Put simply, trust is only valuable when placed in trustworthy agents and activities.

In the case of supermarkets, the more times members of the public arrive at supermarkets to find shelves fully stacked with a steady supply of baked beans and loo roll, the more trust they felt willing to place in food retailers. It is resilient operational delivery that has allowed supermarkets to reclaim their status as a systemically important sector throughout crisis.

Trust depends on action as much as anything else – and this philosophy can be extended to politics. The more actions taken by government to support the UK public during the pandemic, the more the public is willing to find reasons trust the government.  

So what can the Labour Party do to prove it can be trusted? 

In the short term, this will be difficult. The party is not where its needs to be in the polls and there is no silver bullet that can grant Labour the votes it needs – particularly going into local elections amidst a vaccine rollout.  

But it’s not just about what Labour is doing - it’s also about what it is seen to be doing. The Labour Party needs to work harder to convince the UK public of its status as a trustworthy agent. 

The good news is that there is a relatively easy fix. There is plenty of room for the party to offer the public clear evidence that Labour is trustworthy in comparison to the Conservatives, and capitalise on the many opportunities that the UK government has provided over the last 12 months.

Rebuilding trust on public spending and general economic competency is a perennial issue for Labour leaders. The challenge is how the Labour Party can offer a persuasive vision for the country that is different from the Government’s at a time when the state is more active than ever. This will take time and the party will have to wait for Boris Johnson’s promises to underwhelm. 

But in the meantime, Labour must make more of opportunities to differentiate itself. The 1% pay rise for NHS nurses was seen as an insult across the political spectrum and is painfully detached from the 12.5% figure put forward by the Royal College of Nursing. 

Whilst Labour used criticism of the policy to launch its local election campaign, the 2.1% rise that Labour has put forward, which equates to £7 more a week, is not sufficiently different. And as of now the party has not done enough to turn this policy into a campaigning platform that hammers home the need for a Labour Government to offset 10 years of stagnant public sector wages under the Conservatives. 

This is just one example, but Labour can show clear direction in opposition by being bolder and making the most of moments when it disagrees with Government. And the more action the party is seen to take, the more willing the public will be to find reasons to trust it. 

Eleanor Cavill and Matthew Burton
Kekst CNC