YORK: Question Time Leaders' Special raises issue of trust

General elections are moments when parties get the chance to show voters their vision for the big picture of British politics.

Foreign affairs, the economy and the way Britain is governed all make their appearance during campaigns and the Question Time Leader’s Special broadcast from York was no different.

Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Ed Davey and John Swinney answered questions on the Rwanda immigration plan, Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy in Labour and Scottish independence as a pro-Palestine protest raged outside.

But what came through time and time again were the local, day-to-day, immediate issues. The so-called big issues were not forgotten, but the BBC programme showed housing, the cost of living, health, education and the cost of living are just as big for voters as issues which often take centre stage.

But one question seemed to come through more than any other from those in the audience - how can we trust you?

And that faith, or lack of it, has implications for political life all the way from the very top of government to the smallest parish council, and everything in between.

Housing and the cost of living

York itself got a mention during Sir Keir’s slot when he swerved from a question on migration to pitching Labour’s housing policy.

The Labour leader had visited a housing development in Fulford earlier that day to unveil his party’s plans to build 1.5m homes and tackle ballooning costs for renters.

Keir Starmer

He partly blamed delays in the current planning system, pointing to the Germany Beck development which was under construction 15 years after plans were first submitted.

Sir Keir said: “The dream of home ownership is real for so many people, but the average age now for someone to get on the housing ladder is 36 or 37.

READ MORE: BBC Question Time Leaders' Special in York - readers' views

“It’s nigh on impossible for young people to get their first home.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed evoked the cost of living crisis when attempting to defend plans to spend £26.8bn more if they get into power.

Ed Davey

He said: “We’ve got children going to our schools with empty tummies, they’re hungry, you can’t learn if you’re hungry.”

In answer to the last question of the night from a University of York student who asked what the Conservatives would offer him, Mr Sunak was blunt.

The prime minister said: “When you get a job I’m going to cut your taxes.”

Health

Of all the issues discussed during the evening, the NHS was perhaps the one which got the most attention.

Audience members including practising doctors and nurses spoke about their fears over mounting waiting lists, staff shortages and underfunding.

Locally, the amount of outstanding procedures and treatments which are still to be done stood at 45,556 for the York and Scarborough NHS Trust as of April.

Just over half of the delays, 53.2 per cent, were within the NHS target period of 18 weeks but 1,818 were still awaiting treatment after a year or longer since referral.

The figures had improved since April 2023 when there were 51,057 outstanding procedures, 47.1 per cent of them within 18 weeks and 3,939 delayed for at least a year.

Mr Sunak said he wished his government could have gotten waiting times down faster when answering a question about his regrets during his tenure in Downing Street.

Rishi Sunak

He pointed to his party’s policy of allowing people to get some medicines directly from pharmacies without seeing a GP as one of his successes.

He said: “We’ve put record amounts of investment into the NHS, but things don’t happen overnight or in a straight line.”

Sir Keir said he would treat health workers with more respect but they would have to work longer to clear backlogs and reforms for the NHS would be needed.

SNP leader Mr Swinney said while he accepted there were real challenges in the NHS in Scotland, the impact of the Conservatives’ austerity programme had been missing from the debate.

Mr Swinney said: “We haven’t heard that in the debate between Labour and the Conservatives and the debate isn’t realistic about the amount of investment required in the public sector.”

Education

Labour’s plans to remove VAT exemptions on private school fees were brought up during the show.

An audience member asked whether that would place further strain on the already struggling state education system.

Sir Keir said the money would be needed to address problems facing all children and parents.

But in response to another question he said he had made a political choice to backtrack on a previous pledge to abolish tuition fees to focus on the NHS.

He said: “At the moment we haven’t got enough teachers to teach basic subjects like maths.

“That inhibits children, it affects the kinds of apprenticeships and jobs they can get.”

Liberal Democrat Sir Ed was challenged on his party’s decision to back hikes while in coalition with the Conservatives despite promising to abolish them in 2010.

The audience member, a student, asked: “How can my generation trust you?”

After applause, Sir Ed said losing trust among young voters had been one of his biggest political lessons and he was set to trying to win it back.

Trust and integrity

The Liberal Democrat leader was not the only one who had their integrity questioned during the programme.

Every leader faced variations of the same question put in many different ways, how could they be trusted.

It spoke not only to a lack of trust in their ability to deliver on particular promises, on to a wider disillusionment with politicians and politics in general.

Questions about tuition fees came along with ones about whether the Liberal Democrat programme as a whole was viable and Sir Ed’s seriousness following a number of campaign trail stunts.

Mr Swinney was dogged by questions about his stance on Scottish independence and a second referendum while Sir Keir struggled when confronted with previous comments praising his predecessor Mr Corbyn.

John Swinney

And Mr Sunak was asked whether he was embarrassed to lead the Conservatives and others followed about ethics in the wake of an ongoing betting probe into two party candidates.

Time will tell whether or not trust issues were confined to the studio audience at the University’s East Campus and if the party leaders can do anything to regain confidence.