State of the Race: Do People Trust Labour?

With 37 days to go ... what voters REALLY think of Keir Starmer's Labour Party

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Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

It’s one of the most important questions hanging over the UK’s 2024 election. After the long legacy of New Labour. After the failed forever wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. After the global financial crash and the failure to regulate and then punish financial services. After the ‘there’s no money left’ note of 2010. After triggering the onset of mass immigration. After Gillian Duffy, Emily Thornberry, and the thinly disguised disdain of the working-class. After Jeremy Corbyn, the rise of the far left and then its rapid descent into antisemitism. After replying to the democratic vote for Brexit by demanding the British people be forced to think again, through a second referendum. And after fourteen long years in opposition, fourteen years away from the corridors of power, it all now comes down to this one fundamental question. Do the British people trust the Labour Party?

It’s even the question Keir Starmer asked during his first major speech of the election campaign, which he gave in Sussex yesterday:

"I know there are countless people who haven't decided how they'll vote in this election. They're fed up with the failure, chaos and division of the Tories. But they still have questions about us: has Labour changed enough? Do I trust them with my money, our borders, our security?”

It's a good question. And with 37 days to go until the crunch election it’s also one we can answer by drawing on the most reliable data in the country.

So, here are five key charts on what ordinary people REALLY think about the Labour Party and Keir Starmer. And while the party might be cruising in the polls the results are not what you might expect …