Can Boris win back trust after 'Partygate'?
Can Boris win back public trust after the Sue Gray report, we ask a leading academic
A University of Exeter academic who has been studying levels of trust in politicians says the PM might still win another election - if he can inspire trust ahead of the next election in two years' time.
The Prime Minister last night faced his backbenchers and appeared to calm their anger - following Sue Gray's highly critical report about gatherings at Number Ten.
The report confirmed alcohol-fuelled events when lockdown rules were in force - pointing at "serious failures of leadership".
Dr Hannah Bunting, who has been researching trust in politicians, said: "In the Commons debate about the Sue Gray update or report that has been released what Boris Johnson did was he focussed on issues that he knows he's trusted on for example Brexit, he mentioned crime and the Covid 19 response.
"He also quite cleverly deflected the blame perhaps you might put it that way a little bit by saying 'ok the lessons we're going to learn from this we're going to set up a new office for The Prime Minister'.
"Although he did at the very beginning apologise and say that he got it, he didn't stress his apology, he kept repeating those issues that he's really trusted on.
"That's one way to rebuild but likewise Labour and the other opposition parties could keep stressing the issues they are trusted on.
"For example in the latest poll for the first time since the 2010 election Labour are now trusted more on the economy than the Conservatives are.
"That is what we call a valence issue, this is a really important issue that everybody wants a good economy.
"if Labour and other parties can keep clawing back that trust on those particular issues that everybody cares about then Boris Johnson's really going to be in trouble no matter what he does."
When asked if the PM can win a second election, she said: "There was in the Commons debate on the Sue Gray report a lot of critical points raised by Conservative members of Parliament so it may well be that they continue to call for him to resign.
"but we do have another two years until the next scheduled election of course, whethere there's an early on is an open question.
"if this is kind of all forgotten about by the time that next election comes around then he may well ride it out."
She added: "The public have been well aware of Boris Johnson’s flaws and this didn’t dim his electoral popularity. The difference now is people can compare their actions to his when we all were in the same situation.
“Mr Johnson’s lack of vision for how to govern Britain now seems to be harming him – now that Brexit has lost its salience as an issue, people find it difficult to see what else he stands for. This gives him fewer redeeming political qualities, so the damaging revelations about his personal judgement have more of an impact.
“Different people have differing levels of trust in the government, however it is generally universal that we want to trust government to act in our interests. At the start of the pandemic, most of us complied with government restrictions because we thought it was in everyone’s interests – we made sacrifices to ensure people were safe. To see that the government weren’t making those same sacrifices is going to have serious implications for trust.
“Campaigners, councillors and election candidates will be nervous about the impact of the situation involving No 10 on upcoming elections in the South West this May”