{"id":414483,"date":"2025-09-11T00:39:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414483\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T00:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:39:17","slug":"reform-uk-supporters-most-likely-to-say-they-feel-powerless-to-make-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414483\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Reform UK supporters most likely to say they feel powerless to make change\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 gunhQQ\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/reform-uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reform UK<\/a> supporters are even more likely than non-voters to say they feel \u201cpowerless\u201d to bring about change in the country, according to polling.<\/p>\n<p>Almost three quarters (72%) of supporters of Nigel Farage\u2019s party said they felt this way, a study suggested.<\/p>\n<p>This was higher than for non-voters (66%) and above the overall finding for all survey participants (54%).<\/p>\n<p>Almost six in 10 (59%) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/conservative\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Conservative<\/a> supporters said they felt powerless, while just over half (52%) of Liberal Democrat backers and 42% of Labour supporters felt this way.<\/p>\n<p>The research highlights the risk of a \u201cfurther spiral into public disengagement\u201d, those behind the study said.<\/p>\n<p>The survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,185 people aged 16 and older in Great Britain in April, was carried out by pollster Ipsos UK in collaboration with King\u2019s College London (KCL) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/london-school-of-economics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">London School of Economics<\/a> (LSE).<\/p>\n<p>Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the policy institute at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/kcl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KCL<\/a> said it is no surprise people who feel they have \u201cso little to lose\u201d are willing to \u201ctake a chance on a relatively new party with a more radical approach\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Reform UK currently has four MPs in Parliament and describes itself as the \u201cUK\u2019s fastest growing political movement\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Duffy said while there has never been a \u201cgolden age\u201d of the public feeling powerful in their influence over national and local decisions, there have been further declines in recent years from an already-low base.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, one in four people surveyed said that when they get involved in politics they feel they really can change how the UK is run.<\/p>\n<p>This is down from from one in three people feeling this way in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Duffy said the survey also showed a \u201ccollapse in belief that public services are ready to listen to complaints\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The research showed the share of people who feel most public services are ready to listen to complaints has almost halved in recent decades, from 49% in 2002 to just 26% this year.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Duffy said: \u201cWe know that how services respond when things go wrong is a key element of \u2018delivery\u2019, which is major focus for the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Government<\/a> but these results shows how difficult a task they face in convincing the public that services can actually deliver for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trinh Tu, from Ipsos, said: \u201cWithout a concerted effort to rebuild this trust at every level, from the local council to the national stage, we risk a further spiral into public disengagement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis would not only make governing more difficult but could fundamentally weaken the democratic legitimacy that all our public institutions rely on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Tony Travers, from LSE, suggested a continued decline in trust in public services could lead to the public being less willing to pay taxes.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cPowerlessness is corrosive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe major political parties at both central and local government level risk alienating voters and undermining trust in democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf people feel they can\u2019t get public services to work for them because Whitehall and council officials appear not to care, there will be consequences for political parties and for the willingness of people to pay taxes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-414483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115182879688659999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}