Politicians face battle to regain public’s trust, warns TV news chief

CHANNEL 4 head of news Dorothy Byrne has said the public are in danger of losing their “trust and faith in democracy”.

The veteran journalist said she was concerned by the public’s “low opinion” of politicians. Byrne – inset – described the Prime Minister as a “known liar” during her withering MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival last August.

Appearing on

Desert Island Discs,

she said: “My job is to speak truth to power and my concern about politicians not telling the truth is not some eccentric view of my own – it is one shared by the British people.

“It was really depressing when we surveyed 2,000 voters in the election campaign and only 10 per cent said they believed that candidates were generally telling the truth.

“I think politicians have to listen – not just to me – but to the voters who are saying ‘We don’t trust you, because if the people stop trusting the politicians, they will lose their trust and faith in democracy.

“We have seen that happening in America, so if we want to preserve democracy, we have got to get people to trust the politicians again.”

The news chief said the Conservative Party should be praised for winning a “fairly fought” election campaign.

But asked by host Lauren Laverne whether she thought democracy was in peril, she replied: “I do, yes.

“In fact, journalists don’t share the public’s low opinion of politicians because we meet them and we know that in fact they entered politics because they thought that they had something to give to society.

“But when politicians don’t come on to television, the most trusted medium, and explain their policies, and hold themselves accountable, and allow themselves to be challenged, I think that that is bad for democracy because the people who elected them want to hear them justify their policies and want to hear them stand up to scrutiny.”

Desert Island Discs is available on the BBC Sounds app.