UK government seen as most likely to ‘ignore the rules’, large European study finds

According to study, 66 per cent of people in UK and 70 per cent in Poland feel their government is not well respected

File photo: In the UK, 31 per cent of the public said they felt negatively towards news and media organisations (Getty)

A new study has revealed that people in the UK are more likely than those in any other European nation to declare that their government “ignores rules”.

In the wake of Boris Johnson’s Partygate scandal, a large EU-funded study across six states in Europe showed that 62 per cent of people in the UK think their government ignores rules and procedures.

In Poland, where the administration has often been accused of authoritarianism, 50 per cent of the respondents believed that their government has no regard for the rules.

The study was conducted by King’s College London (KCL). It surveyed 12,000 people in the UK, Poland, Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Norway this January.

People in both Poland and the UK felt that their government’s values were different from theirs and that their governments also usually ignored people like them. The respondents were also more likely than not to believe that their government acts unfairly towards people like them.

According to the study, 66 per cent of people in the UK and 70 per cent in Poland felt their government was not well respected.

The respondents were also asked about their attitudes towards media in their countries. In the UK, 31 per cent of the public said they felt negatively towards news and media organisations.

In Poland, the media was similarly viewed in a poor light. At least 32 per cent of respondents said they viewed the media negatively.

At least 37 per cent of the people in the UK — the highest proportion of people among the six states surveyed — said that their feelings towards the EU were negative. The six-country average on this question was 26 per cent.

The study’s release comes amid the so-called Partygate scandal of Downing Street parties in Whitehall during the coronavirus lockdown. Senior civil servant Sue Gray’s full report into the allegations was expected to be published later on Wednesday.

“None of the countries in the study does particularly well, with large proportions in each saying they’re cautious in trusting their government, disagreeing that they are honest, truthful and provide unbiased information – although people do tend to be more positive in Norway and Germany than other nations,” Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at KCL, told The Guardian.

He continued: “The key point of difference that stands out in the UK is that six in 10 say the government ‘ignores rules and procedures’, compared with an average of 44 per cent across the countries as a whole and only 34 per cent in Norway – which will likely reflect the widespread coverage of ‘Partygate’.”

Mr Duffy added that it was important to “focus on rebuilding this perception, as it could affect the legitimacy of government and the public’s willingness to comply with the rules themselves”.