UK public deem Claudia Winkleman more trustworthy than Rachel Reeves, according to Big Issue Ipsos poll

Big Issue and leading pollster Ipsos have surveyed how trustworthy Brits view their leading politicians compared to the cast of the upcoming Celebrity Traitors, with the findings exclusively published today (Monday 29 September).

The polling has been done to mark the first edition of a relaunched look-and-feel for the 34-year-old street magazine.

Starting with today’s edition, each Big Issue will interrogate a ‘big issue’ of the day, with features and interviews specifically curated around the theme of the week.

As we move into party conference season, the Big Issue’s relaunch edition explores the crisis in public trust at the heart of government. It also asks whether the quest for truth in society is seeping across our culture and into TV hits like The Traitors, which debuts its celebrity spin-off on Wednesday 8 October.

Working with leading polling firm Ipsos, the Big Issue has pitted the cast of Celebrity Traitors against the UK’s leading politicians to discover who the public trust more.

51% of respondents said that they found Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman more trustworthy than Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves – with just 15% saying they trust Reeves more than Winkleman, and 34% saying they didn’t trust either. Men were more likely than women to trust in Rachel Reeves.

The public also view Celebrity Traitors contestant Jonathan Ross as more trustworthy than Prime Minister Keir Starmer, despite the fact that Ross has weathered various controversies over the past two decades. 41% said they found Ross more trustworthy than Starmer, with 36% saying they trusted ‘neither’ man and just 23% saying they trusted Starmer more.

It’s not just Labour politicians who are viewed with suspicion by the public. The poll also found that Celebrity Traitors contestant Kate Garraway is viewed as more trustworthy than Kemi Badenoch, and Alan Carr is viewed as more trustworthy than Nigel Farage.

The poll also showed that the public believe Stephen Fry is most likely to win Celebrity Traitors, with 12% of respondents betting on the actor and presenter emerge victorious. Alan Carr (5%) and Jonathan Ross (4%) were the second and third most popular bets on winners respectively.

The issue also explores how trust can be restored, with a visit to a circus school, where trust is everything for its performers, and a look inside the new John Le Carré exhibition, a treasure trove from his archives from a world of spying where trust and mistrust live. It digs into one of the biggest trust scandals of the 21^st century – the phone hacking scandal – ahead of the upcoming ITV drama The Hack, and there’s also an interview with musician Warren Ellis, formerly of The Dirty Three and now a key member of the Bad Seeds with Nick Cave.

Paul McNamee, Big Issue UK Editor, said: “The UK’s politicians know they’re not trusted. Upon becoming prime minister, Keir Starmer put it like this: ‘The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era’.

“It’s a sign of the times that, alongside this, The Traitors, TV’s biggest hit, has won hearts through a thrilling lack of trust. What can be learned from these two parallel trust trajectories? To that end, leading polling firm Ipsos’s pollsters asked 1,100 adults in the UK who they trust more: politicians, or the cast of Celebrity Traitors. Who emerges as a faithful? Who is deemed a traitor?

“In another poll, with Big Issue readers earlier this year, they told us how important trust was to them. How they trust our reporting to be factual and accurate, and trust us to challenge authority, when the need arises. It’s with that spirit we debut our exciting new approach to this 34-year-old street paper. Never fast and loose with facts. Relentlessly seeking answers to the big questions of our age.”

This week’s Big Issue is on sale from vendors across the UK now. Vendors buy their magazines for £2 and sell them for £4, keeping the profit, with the magazine providing an earning opportunity for thousands of vendors across the UK every year.

NOTES

Ipsos polled 1,100 British adults, aged 16-75, online between 22-25 August.

In every case, the public trusts a set of celebrities over politicians:

• They were asked: Of these two options (one celebrity, one politician), who do you think is the most trustworthy?
• Claudia Winkleman is more trusted than Rachel Reeves. Jonathan Ross more trusted than Keir Starmer (41% v 23%), Charlotte Church more than Angela Rayner (45% v 15%), Kate Garraway more than Kemi Badenoch (46% v 16%), Clare Balding more than Ed Davey (47% v 15%), and Alan Carr more than Nigel Farage (50% v 22%).

Further insights:

• Men are nearly twice as likely to trust Farage over Carr than women (29% of men trusting Farage, 15% of women trusting Farage).
• Men are more likely to trust Rachel Reeves over Winkleman than women.
• Lib Dems are not the most likely to trust Ed Davey over Clare Balding: that honour falls to Labour 2024 voters.
• Minority ethnic respondents are more likely than white respondents to trust Nigel Farage over Alan Carr, as were graduates more likely than non-graduates, and London more than the North.
• Leave voters were equally likely (37% each) to trust Nigel Farage and Alan Carr.

Secondary lines on who the public think is most likely to win Celebrity Traitors:

• Stephen Fry: 12%
• Alan Carr: 5%
• Jonathan Ross: 4%
• Clare Balding, Tom Daley, Joe Wilkinson, Charlotte Church, Joe Marler: 3%
• Kate Garraway, Niko Omilana, Nick Mohammed: 2%
• Celia Imrie, David Olusoga, Mark Bonnar, Paloma Faith, Lucy Beaumont, Cat Burns: 1%
• Tameka Empson, Ruth Codd: 0%
• Don’t know: 50%