Dear Editor,
Tim Farron (Politics and Policy, en July 2025) is not the first politician to ask how trust in politicians can be restored, and I am sure he won’t be the last. But the answer is not, as he suggests, being local or walking to talk to constituents. Only one thing can create or rebuild trust: consistently acting in a trustworthy manner, doing what you said you would do, and not doing what you said you would not do. This always takes time, and rebuilding trust after it has been broken takes a lot of time.
In contrast trust can be destroyed instantly by a single act. This has been demonstrated repeatedly, but in recent UK politics most dramatically by the Liberal Democrats when in coalition after the 2010 general election. A commitment to abolish university tuition fees was prominent in their manifesto, and all of the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs had signed a pledge prior to the election that committed them to vote against any increase in fees. Twenty seven voted to increase tuition fees, including the party leader Nick Clegg; 21 voted against including Tim Farron, and the former leaders Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy; six abstained, and two were absent at a climate summit. At the next general election in 2015 only eight Liberal Democrat MPs were elected. It was not until the general election of 2024 that the party recovered.
