Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Culture and Communications

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2223_PO-131_Introduction to Politics
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The completion of Brexit: heading towards trust or mistrust?

The article “Will Getting Brexit Done restore Political trust?. UK in a Changing Europe” by
Gaskell (2020) looks into a correlation between the completion of Brexit and restoring the declining
trust people have in politicians and political institutions. There is a stated need to explore “what is
driving trust judgments” for politicians to rectify public mistrust (Gaskell. J, et al ,2020, p6).
However, the consensus claims “getting Brexit done” will bring back neither trust nor support for
the PM or for the state (ibid, p4), the article noting five reasons for this.

The first piece of evidence, (all of which) concluded from focus groups, found the public
wanted to trust politicians and the state, but questioned whether political elites would legitimately
act in the public’s interest (ibid, p4). Only ten percent note the opposite (ibid, p8). The second piece
of evidence is the strain COVID-19 put on both the public and private sectors. The emended sense
of trust people have in the government to protect them in times of crisis faded when the state
failed to manage growing concerns (educational and economical) and relating to COVID, creating
sardonic criticism of the government (ibid, p4). Correlating with Enria (2021) who noted that trust in
communities is not ubiquitous, mistrust and worries about transparency in how the state
communicates and shares evidence to public has an impact on how the government is perceived by
the public (Enria, L, et al ,2021, p2). This would arguably have created more mistrust. The third
point states that both Leavers and Remainers see Brexit as “already done” (Gaskell. J, et al ,2020,
p4). As such the focus on Brexit as the be all end all of regaining trust holds little weight for Gaskell
(2020). The fourth point is that the public’s assumptions cannot be mitigated so strongly given that
they all get information from different sources, not all of which can be validated or controlled by
politicians (ibid, p5). Only made less plausible by people’s changing views over time, focusing
mostly on the present, (ibid, p5) not on what politicians might do, but instead of what they are
currently doing. Finally, Gaskell (2020) notes a consensus among voters to delay Brexit in hopes of
getting a better deal. The economic impacts of both Brexit and COVID happening simultaneously
threatened to make the no deal prospects worse, COVID also acting as a convenient boogeyman to
pin any negative implications (economical) that come with Brexit (ibid, p5), Leavers in particularly
worried that politicians were going to use said boogeyman as an excuse.

The controversial and problematic element of the article could be seen as having started
pre-COVID, with test conditions and hypotheses planned without a global pandemic in mind. While
Gaskell (2020) examines that Brexit had taken a “taken a back seat” (ibid, p9) to COVID, therefore

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changing or amplifying people's perspective on Brexit, the conclusion that Brexit will not return
public trust is reached all the same. COVID-19 “shifted public concern away from Brexit”
(Abernethy, S., & Elliot, 2020, p13/14), it was not at the forefront of people's thinking, arguably
shaping how those in a focus group would answer questions. Worries about Brexit dropped down
to 26%, and the public (85%) deciding that COVID-19 was the most prevalent issue in the UK (ibid,
p13/14). It is not surprising, given the pandemic halted wage increases and had instead decreased it
by 2% (De Lyon, J., & Dhingra, S. 2021, p2) that people were not focusing as heavily on Brexit as
they might have if COVID was not a factor. It is very likely that these COVID impacts had some
effects on the British public’s views towards Brexit in some way. However, Gaskell (2020), perhaps
because of the sunk cost, goes ahead with the focus group testing, arguably giving the findings a
problematic element.

We must look at Gaskell’s (2020) implications of the overall findings as well as conclusions
that note a general mistrust the public (on both sides of the Brexit issue) has for the government. A
general feeling that the state is not going to act in the interest of the people— “different groups in
society are less trusting and more distrusting of each other” (ibid, p6). This view correlates with the
declining sense, not just in the UK, but around the world, people have for their governing bodies;
2015 findings show as little as 19% of Americans trust the government to do what is right
(Abramson, J. 2017, p9). Therefore, it is not shocking that, while people want to trust the
government, they simply cannot make themselves that vulnerable to the state (Gaskell. J, et
al ,2020, p4). However, the focus group results are called into question when one considers that the
tests started pre-pandemic and ended during the pandemic. It seems clear that COVID-19 would
have had some impacts on Brexit and how people would respond to questions about it, perhaps
increasing the sense of mistrust amongst the subjects. Though we might ask ourselves if not Brexit,
what will restore political trust in the politicians and their institutions for the public? Gaskell (2020)
does not give a clear answer to this question, it is left for others to try and answer, whether that be
more transparency, less corruption, accountability. If those are the right answers, what would it
look like in a liberal democracy like Britain and who would enforce it? Can it (or should it) be done
democratically or at all.

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 References
Abramson, J. (2017). Trust and Democracy. Aspen Institute, Aug. p9
Abernethy, S., & Elliot, L. (2020). Brexit transition. p13/14
Dayan, M., Fahy, N., Hervey, T., McCarey, M., Jarman, H., & Greer, S. (2020). Understanding the
impact of Brexit on health in the UK. Nuffield Trust, 2020-12. p45
De Lyon, J., & Dhingra, S. (2021). The impacts of Covid-19 and Brexit on the UK economy: early
evidence in 2021. London: Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and
Political Science. p2
Enria, L., Waterlow, N., Rogers, N. T., Brindle, H., Lal, S., Eggo, R. M., ... & Roberts, C. H. (2021). Trust
and transparency in times of crisis: Results from an online survey during the first wave (April 2020)
of the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK. PloS one, 16(2) p2
Gaskell, J., Stoker, G., Jennings, W., & Devine, D. (2020). Will Getting Brexit Done restore Political
trust?. UK in a Changing Europe. p1/9
Pickup, M., de Rooij, E. A., van der Linden, C., & Goodwin, M. J. (2021). Brexit, COVID‐19, and
attitudes toward immigration in Britain. Social science quarterly, 102(5), 2184-2193,

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