Sunak and Starmer are both failing to inspire voters with lack of trust an issue

Interview with politics expert Dr Steve McCabe

Transcript

00:00 So Rishi Sonek was supposed to be this sane, grown-up candidate.

00:05 And of course, the view was that by getting rid of Johnson,

00:08 and of course, Trust replaced him, and of course, we knew the disaster there,

00:12 Sonek was supposed to lead to a boost in the polls.

00:15 That has not happened. So he is deeply unpopular nationally.

00:20 The Conservatives seem to be running out of ideas.

00:24 And indeed, he's unpopular with his own party.

00:27 Contrast that with Keir Starmer, of course, he sort of inherits a pretty broken party

00:32 after the Lats election in 2019, the "get Brexit done in December"

00:37 - very unusual to have an election at that time.

00:41 But of course, the idea that he would be leading so much in the polls by this point

00:46 would have seemed pretty ridiculous.

00:48 But dare I say it, Starmer does not excite the public in the way that Tony Blair did in 1997.

00:55 So what I'm saying is that nationally, the polls suggest that people are disillusioned

01:00 with the Conservative Party, but if they vote for anyone,

01:04 it's the Labour Party with a certain amount of reluctance.

01:07 Voter apathy, disillusionment and lack of trust with politicians does appear to be an issue,

01:14 with research by Opinium suggesting that less than one in five 18-24-year-olds

01:21 trust politicians and more than four million under-35s could not be registered to vote.

01:28 Younger people do not have the same interest in politics that I believe I had when I was young.

01:34 And indeed, it's a big issue.

01:37 Now, of course, there may be a number of reasons for that.

01:40 They see the politician, it's the punch and judy club.

01:43 Also, I think the problem is it's seen to be somehow archaic.

01:47 So maybe there is a good shout for changing the way in which we vote by using electronic means.

01:54 But do I think that's going to happen any time soon?

01:56 No, because there are all sorts of problems with doing that also.

01:59 Also.