There is a crisis of trust in UK politics
- Reasoning
- Most voters believe politics is corrupt.
- Evidence
- 80% said there was a lot or a fair amount of corruption.
- How it supports the argument
- Even 74% of Conservative voters agreed.
ApprovedConcludedStatistic
Title
YouGov poll: four in five think there is corruption in British politics
Date
November 2021
Relevant topic(s)
Democracy and participationDirect and representative democracy
What happened?
In November 2021, during the row over Owen Paterson and MPs' second jobs, YouGov asked Britons how much corruption they thought there was in British politics. Most rejected the Prime Minister's claim that the UK was 'not remotely a corrupt country'.
The poll is widely used as evidence of low trust in politicians.
- 80% of Britons, including 74% of Conservative voters, said there was 'a lot' or 'a fair amount' of corruption in British politics, rejecting Boris Johnson's claim that the UK was 'not remotely a corrupt country'.
- YouGov published the findings on 12 November 2021, from a survey earlier that week.
Why is it politically significant?
Low trust is one of the main pieces of evidence for a participation crisis: if voters believe politics is corrupt, they may stop taking part or turn to anti-system parties.
How to use
Which arguments does it support?
Which counterarguments exist?
Limits of the evidence
Perception is not proof
The poll measures how much corruption people think there is, not how much there actually is.
Other explanations
The timing inflated the figure
It was taken at the height of the Paterson row, when sleaze dominated the news.
Concepts and connections
Concepts it illustrates
Sources and verification
EventNovember 2021
Added to bank11 November 2026
Last checked11 November 2026
Next check due11 May 2027
- 1Opened
About this example
Is it still current?
Concluded
The development has ended or been reversed, but remains useful evidence.
Why it is in the bank
A clear statistic on trust for answers on the participation crisis.
- ✓Relevance to the specification
- PartlyStrength and reliability of the evidenceYouGov's article does not give the fieldwork dates; the data tables should be checked.
- ✓Importance to a wider political debate
- ✓Usefulness in evaluative essays
- ✓Connections to other topics
- ✓Sufficiently current
- ✓Adds something new to the bank
Editorial status
Approved
Signed off for students.
Origin: AI draft (Claude) · Reviewer: Editor
Every fact on this page has been checked against original sources.