The government could win Britain’s trust back. MPs would just have to wear a uniform | Zoe Williams

The government could win Britain’s trust back. MPs would just have to wear a uniform | Zoe Williams

When you can’t even look at the Labour cabinet without wondering how much their cufflinks cost and who paid for them, it might be time to level up the clothing allowances

Polling just dropped on trust in the Labour government – 59% think it’s fairly or very sleazy, according to YouGov, which will be sobering news to the prime minister (seen as more sleazy than Rishi Sunak by 35% of people), even if a bit puzzling on its own terms. Can you be “fairly” sleazy? I’d say trustworthiness is a binary state, like being pregnant: you either are or you aren’t.

The revelations keep coming: Angela Rayner, already in the spotlight for having borrowed the New York apartment of Lord Alli, was revealed to have bought a bespoke suit for former MP Sam Tarry, with her own money, when she was still going out with him. Sleaze-hounds are asking why it wasn’t disclosed on Tarry’s parliamentary register of interests, when I think the answer is pretty obvious: it was a present from his girlfriend.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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