Confidence in the UK parliament has plummeted since Brexit, according to new research, while trust in the European Union has risen.
Findings from the World Values Survey (WVS), which explores trust in institutions in 24 nations from Canada to South Korea, found that people declaring confidence in Westminster has slumped by 10 percentage points to 22 per cent since 2016.
Conversely, there has been a seven percentage point rise in confidence in the Brussels-based bloc, to 39 per cent.
Commenting on the findings, the former Brexit secretary David Davis said the marked shift was probably a result of “a whiny, unpleasant, bitchy row” in parliament over Brexit since late 2017, “which has been completely unproductive”.
He said UK government crises over the coronavirus pandemic would have added to the slump in trust and suggested that since Brexit, the media – he named the Sun, Daily Telegraph, Times and Daily Mail – have stopped “kicking Brussels all the time” as they did in the run-up to the 2016 referendum.
“No one reads about square strawberries or straight bananas any more,” he said.
In the years running up to the Brexit referendum, UK newspapers were famed for publishing so-called ‘Euromyths’ that consisted of speculative changes the EU was believed to be contemplating.
One published by the Sun in 2006 claims “nutty” EU officials want to rename Bombay mix Mumbai mix “to make the snack politically correct” in a report dubbed “completely ludicrous” by EU officials.
Other stories include speculation that curved bananas are to be banned, a one-size-fits-all “euro condom” is to be rolled out and that Britain would be forced to get rid of pints, acres, inches, feet and pounds in favour of metric measurements.
The WVS found that the UK was 23rd out of 24 countries in terms of confidence in the press. Media in Mexico, Italy, Russia and Brazil all enjoyed more than double the level of confidence.