A Parliamentary Drinks Reception provides a fitting launch for Full Fact’s new Government Tracker

On a chilly November evening, Parliament’s Terrace Pavilion was the stage for a welcome discussion on rebuilding trust in politics.

Hosted by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon on behalf of Full Fact, the evening brought together parliamentarians, journalists and changemakers, all united in their dedication to tackling misinformation and promoting honesty in public life.

The event—made possible thanks to the support of the Nuffield Foundation—included insightful speeches from Full Fact’s Chief Executive Chris Morris, Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell and Baroness Jan Royall.

Full Fact trustee Baroness Royall kicked off proceedings with a powerful statement: “Where there is no honesty in public life, that’s a disservice to our democracy. And I think democracy is very fragile and we need to protect it in every way that we can.”

Echoing this, Full Fact Chief Executive Chris Morris reflected on how our mission has evolved over the past 15 years. Where its focus was once on addressing the question of “why is this person lying to me”, a decade and a half later the scope of our work has grown significantly.

“The canvas on which we try to paint has become so much broader,” Chris explained. “The question that we now often are asked to wrestle with is: can anyone believe anything they see, read or hear anywhere? And if the answer to that question for a majority of people becomes they don't think they can, that’s clearly a real problem for this place, because if they don't think they can believe what you say, they certainly won’t trust you.”

It’s no secret that trust in politics is low. Brand new polling from Ipsos reveals that politicians remain the least trusted profession, with just 11% of Britons trusting them to tell the truth. While this marks a slight improvement from last year’s 40-year low of nine percent, it still underscores the steep challenge ahead. Government ministers fare only a little better, with 15% of people trusting them—up five points from 2023.

That two point increase will no doubt come as a pleasant surprise to Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell MP, who acknowledged the tough reputation politicians face and expressed hope that the government might be able to “turn that percentage slightly around to, maybe get to 10% from 9%!”

And it’s that issue of trust that fuelled our decision to launch a new Government Tracker, a tool to monitor the government on the delivery of its promises. Trust in politics affects us all, and this tracker gives voters the power to see for themselves what progress is—or isn’t—being made.

Lucy Powell praised the tracker as an important tool to hold politicians accountable and a step toward restoring trust. Acknowledging past scandals that have eroded trust, she admitted: “We’ve not really done ourselves many favours,” but expressed hope that tools like this, combined with renewed commitment from politicians, can begin to turn the tide. “We are very committed to trying to rebuild trust in some way,” she said and, “I will share information with you and where I see my colleagues not coming forward with some of their manifesto commitments on your tracker, I will chase them on that.”

A fitting acknowledgement that the work we’re doing has value and impact. We will hold the Leader of the House to her word and hope that too much “chasing” won’t be necessary.