‘Has the British public lost faith in politics…?’ asks Lord Kulveer Ranger

Why do I say that? Because politics for the vast majority of people is not tribal, it’s practical.

The old adage of the people asking, “What’s in it for me if I lend you my vote?” is a question I’ve heard many time on the doorstep over the last 25 years as I’ve campaigned in general, local and mayoral elections across the country.

At the last general election in 2019, Boris Johnson won a landslide victory because he was clear with the electorate about what he was going to do - Get Brexit Done.

The country was tired of hearing and seeing what they rightly felt was a political stalemate and their democratic not being done.

Subsequently, Johnson’s Government was hit by the double whammy of a global pandemic and war in Europe. Yes, there were other political distractions that ate away at public confidence and led the Conservative Party to decide it had to change its leader not once but twice.

These convoluted political machinations left many Conservative voters, as well as the average voter wondering; what do the Conservatives stand for now?

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Critically, are they still the Party that can be trusted to rebuild the economy and deliver on core tenants like law and order, values that used to be the bedrock of what the Tories both stood for and would deliver on.

So what of Labour? More taxes on Non-Doms (AKA the rich who invest in industry and create jobs) and VAT on private school fees, political red meat to the rabid left that still sits under the Starmer applied veneer of centre-left liberalism.

I am sure their manifesto will have some eye-catching policies in it and they may even choose to tackle that sacred of sacred cows, NHS reform, but let’s be honest, however you package it, socialism is socialism and though Labour has significant leads in various polls, many voters are still undecided and as the recent local elections and the by-election in Blackpool South demonstrated, which had a 56.8 per cent turnout in 2019 and this year it was 32.5 per cent. Many voters are choosing to sit on their hands for now.

That’s because they want politicians who will stick to their promises and deliver what is best for them, their families and the country. Not gesture politics. Not virtue signalling.

First and foremost people know that it is the economy that enables everything else to happen.

The Government does not make money. It spends the money that businesses and workers pay in tax and if the economy doesn’t grow then all those promises do not get done.

So I do not believe the public has lost faith in politics but they want answers to the questions that need answering.

That is why I believe there will be a significant turnout when the general election is called later this year. The campaigns will hopefully demonstrate the clear blue water between the offers from the two major Parties, both on policies and values.

In turn, the public will have the opportunity to judge and then vote for the parties and the politicians that they believe will deliver for them.