Public Preferences for Integrity and Accountability in Politics. Results of a Second Survey of the UK Population

Public confidence in our democratic process is at a low ebb. Years of contestation over Brexit raised fundamental questions about how democracy in the UK should work. Concerns have been heightened further over the past 18 months by the Owen Paterson affair, the ‘Partygate’ scandal, and a premiership that crashed and burned in under 50 days. Many voters were alarmed by how Boris Johnson sought to cling to power, while others were equally perturbed that a democratically elected leader was felled without recourse to the electorate. Many commentators now view political reform as essential for restoring equilibrium and confidence, while others think rebuilding trust requires not tinkering with process, but delivering policy outcomes.

In this context, clear understanding of public preferences and priorities is essential. This report sets out the findings of a major survey of public attitudes to the operation of our democratic system fielded by YouGov in late August and early September 2022. This was during the final stages of the Conservative leadership contest that followed Boris Johnson’s resignation, but before Liz Truss’s victory was announced. The sample of just over 4,000 respondents, representative of the UK voting-age population, was large enough to allow us to probe deep into the subtleties of how different groups were thinking.

The survey was the second wave in a two-wave study: we conducted an earlier survey in the summer of 2021, and all respondents to the 2022 survey had already taken part a year before. This design delivers added insights, as we can track how the views of individual respondents changed over time.

The research presented here is part of a wider project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of its Governance after Brexit research programme. Besides the two surveys, the project also included the Citizens’ Assembly on Democracy in the UK, which ran between September and December 2021. We have already published two reports: one on the results of the first survey, the other on the conclusions of the Citizens’ Assembly (referred to respectively as Report 1 and Report 2 in the following pages). We will publish a final report later in 2023, which will draw together the findings from these three studies and reflect on the overall lessons that they carry.

Key Findings

• Respondents indicated low trust in politicians – even lower than in summer 2021.
• There was overwhelming public appetite for stronger mechanisms to uphold integrity among politicians, including more powerful independent regulators.
• The vast majority of respondents wanted leaders to be held accountable through a system of checks and balances. Most wanted checks and balances to be tighter than they are today.
• Most wanted a stronger parliament and thought ministers should not be able to change the law without full parliamentary scrutiny.
• Views on voting systems were mixed, but somewhat favoured a more proportional system.
• Views on reform of the House of Lords were also mixed. There was near-consensus on some moderate reforms, but not on creating an elected chamber.
• There was strong support for the role of judges in adjudicating disputes about the role of government and in protecting human rights. These views were robust to numerous ways of putting the questions.
• Few people wanted to get much more involved in politics than they are. Most felt they knew too little to get more involved, didn’t like how politics works, or didn’t think they would make a difference.
• Views on referendums were mixed. Most respondents supported citizens’ assemblies, but knowing a proposal came from such an assembly barely increased support for it.
• The most popular democratic reform would be if ‘politicians spoke more honestly’.
• While the cost of living and the NHS were people’s top priorities, they cared about the health of democracy in the UK as much as about, for example, crime or immigration.