‘Politicians mess it up every time’: New pre-election pledges may not be enough
June gives me a wry smile when I ask her if she trusts politicians. But it soon fades.
“They promise you the Earth, and you don’t see anything. And it’s soul destroying,” she says.
I meet her and husband Joe as they tuck into fish and chips in the town’s oldest chippy, the Peabung, which has served this town since 1883.
June no longer trusts politicians
June tells me she really wants to trust politicians but they “just mess it up every time”. I ask Joe if he thinks politicians care about him? “Well hopefully they do. I’m not sure really.”
He stops to think for a moment. “I don’t really trust politicians,” he says.
Joe is ‘not sure’ politicians care about people like him
The findings of a Sky News/YouGov poll are stark and echo how voters like June and Joe feel. The findings suggest voters no longer believe what politicians say.
In some places, there appears to be a deep loss of faith in British politics.
Shannon Donnelly has nearly 200,000 followers on TikTok and has used the platform to develop her Grimsby-based business selling personal safety equipment, such as panic alarms. I ask her if she trusts politicians.
“No – I think things like Brexit has massively changed people’s opinion. I won’t forget when they said all that money would go to the NHS.
“Now we seem to be in a worse position, but they still expect us to trust them. It’s crazy.”
Shannon Donnelly
The percentage of Leavers saying they “almost never” trust the government has leapt by 33 points (from 23% to 56%) since the last election. This is twice as much as the increase for Remainers.
Shannon’s lack of trust impacts on her livelihood and she says she doesn’t know which way to turn.
“For the business, obviously, it’s important to look at what they will do. We’re struggling. VAT is insane, overheads are crazy.”
Read more:
Meet voters taking part in our project ahead of election
Town with port to world’s largest offshore wind farm under watch
Asked if people think politicians care about them, 83% of people asked said no, with just 11% saying they cared a little.
When asked how much do politicians care about your part of the country – there is a clear divide – 86% of people living in the north of England say they don’t care, whereas just 47% of Londoners say their elected representatives don’t care about their city.
Brian Wustrack
Brian Wustrack owns the oldest fish and chip shop in Grimsby.
“They’re just not listening to the people that voted, it’s all a one-way system for them. They’ve lost touch with the people out there, especially the people in the North.”
The prime minister is still to announce the date of the next general election.
However, places like Grimsby and Cleethorpes are key election battlegrounds now. Support for the Conservatives may be fading but that won’t necessarily translate into strong support for Labour.
The Reform party is gaining ground in pro-Leave constituencies like this one, picking up their 2019 Tory voters.
But brace yourself for a raft of promises in the next few months.
The questions is will voters trust politicians to deliver on them.
The Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge is going to be live in Grimsby tonight with a special programme in our Target Towns series. She’ll be talking about trust in politics with a live audience – that’s live tonight on Sky News at 7pm
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
ALL THE CANDIDATES IN NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE’S LOCAL ELECTIONS
Croft Baker
Gemma Harney – Liberal Democrats
Marian Jervis – Labour Party
Graham Reynolds – Conservative Party
East Marsh
Lloyd Emmerson – Liberal Democrats
Barry Miller – Labour and Co-operative Party
Callum Procter – Conservative Party
Freshney
Tamzin Barton – Liberal Democrats
Tanya Brasted – Conservative Party
Paul Bright – Independent (part of Independents for North East Lincolnshire party group)
Paul Wood – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)
Samantha Wrexal Holborrow – Labour Party
Haverstoe
Stephen Hocknell – Liberal Democrats
Val O’Flynn – TUSC
Bill Parkinson – Conservative Party
Ian Townsend – Labour Party
Heneage
Brian Barrett – Liberal Democrats
Emma Clough – Labour Party
Tyrone Curran – Conservative Party
John Stiff – TUSC
Humberston & New Waltham
Ryan Aisthorpe – Liberal Democrats
Joe Carter – TUSC
Hayden Dawkins – Conservative Party
Pauline Kaczmarek – Labour Party
Immingham
David Barton – Liberal Democrats
Trevor Crofts – Conservative Party
Nathan Newton – TUSC
David Watson – Labour Party
Park
Robson Augusta – Labour Party
Zach Kellerman – Liberal Democrats
Dave Mitchell – TUSC
Daniel Westcott – Conservative Party
Scartho
Charlotte Croft – Conservative Party
Caroline Ellis – Liberal Democrats
Dan Humphrey – Labour Party
Val Pow – TUSC
Sidney Sussex
Andy Burton – Liberal Democrats
Alexandra Curran – Conservative Party
Mark Gee – TUSC
Edward Kaczmarek – Labour Party
South
Paul Batson – Conservative Party
Jane Bramley – Independent
Andrew Harrison – Liberal Democrats
Sheldon Mill – Labour Party
Bill Ward – TUSC
Yarborough
Les Bonner – Independent (part of the Independents for North East Lincolnshire party group)
Sam Brown – Labour and Co-operative Party
Phil Tuplin – TUSC
Christine Vickers – Conservative Party
Aharon Wharton – Liberal Democrats
The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.
Ex-Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry has defected to Reform, in the latest blow to the Conservatives.
The former MP for Rossendale and Darwen, who served as Northern Powerhouse minister under Boris Johnson and lost his seat last year, said he had defected to Nigel Farage’s party because the Tories had “lost their way”.
Politics latest: Labour rebel defends calls for ‘wealth tax’
Reform UK confirmed the defection to Sky News, which was first broken by The Sun.
Speaking to the paper, Sir Jake said Mr Farage’s party was the “last chance to pull Britain back from terminal decline”.
“Our streets are completely lawless,” he said.
“Migration is out of control. Taxes are going through the roof.
“And day after day, I hear from people in my community and beyond who say the same thing: ‘This isn’t the Britain I grew up in’.”
Sir Jake accused his former party of “abandoning the British people” but said he was not “giving up”.
“I’m staying. And I’m fighting.
“Fighting for the Britain I want my kids, and one day, my grandkids, to grow up in.”
Mr Farage welcomed what he said was “a very brave decision” by Sir Jake.
“His admission that the Conservative government he was part of broke the country is unprecedented and principled,” he added.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Reform support increasing the benefits bill by removing the two-child cap, and nationalising British industry. By contrast the Conservatives, under new leadership, will keep making the case for sound money, lower taxes and bringing the welfare bill under control.
“We wish Jake well in his new high spend, high tax party.”
Sir Jake’s defection to Reform comes just days after former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones joined Reform UK, which continues to lead in the polls.
Former Welsh secretary David Jones (R) alongside Tory MP Mark Francois. Pic: PA
Mr Jones, who was MP for Clwyd West from 2005 until standing down in 2024, said he had quit the Tories after “more than 50 years of continuous membership”.
Sir Jake was the MP Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire between 2010 and 2024, when he was defeated by Labour’s Andy MacNae.
He held several ministerial posts including in the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Energy and Climate Change and the Cabinet Office.
Nigel Farage after winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
Pic: Reuters
He was also chairman of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022, under Liz Truss.
Announcing his defection – which comes a year after the Tories suffered their worst ever election defeat – Sir Jake said “Britain was broken” and “the Conservative governments I was part of share the blame”.
“We now have a tax system that punishes hard work and ambition,” he said.
“Just this week, we saw record numbers of our brightest and best people leaving Britain because they can’t see a future here. At the same time, our benefits system is pulling in the world’s poor with no plan for integration and no control over who comes in.
“If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you’d be hard-pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule.
“Millions of people, just like me, want a country they can be proud of again. The only way we get that is with Reform in government. That’s why I’ve resigned from the Conservative Party. I’m now backing Reform UK and working to make them the next party of government.”
Read more:
Starmer and Macron agree need for new small boats ‘deterrent’
Controversial welfare bill passes final Commons stage
He added: “And with Nigel Farage leading Reform, we’ve got someone the country can actually trust. He doesn’t change his views to fit the mood of the day. And people respect that. So do I. That’s why I believe he should be our next prime minister.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Not content with taking advice from Liz Truss, Nigel Farage has now tempted her Tory Party chairman into his ranks.
“It’s clear Farage wants Liz Truss’s reckless economics, which crashed our economy and sent mortgages spiralling, to be Reform’s blueprint for Britain. It’s a recipe for disaster and working people would be left paying the price.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike