Foreign secretary sees voters shifting away

Jack Straw yesterday admitted that huge numbers of voters could desert Labour because of a collapse in trust in the government.

The Foreign Secretary said that many voters who threw their weight behind the party in 1997 and 2001 had become deeply disillusioned. He said they believed that Britain did not "feel as good as it should". And he warned that they could switch allegiance quickly.

Straw claimed voters had lost trust in the government because of excessive use of spin and the war in Iraq. He said: "The issue is about trust, and we need to be honest about that. Some of it is about spin, some of it is about how politics is reported. Added to this, there is the issue of Iraq. There is no doubt that Iraq and the things around it have damaged trust in the government."

Straw made the comments at a fringe meeting on Labour's prospects for the next general election. He added: "We live in a society where people switch their allegiances far faster than before, whether it is to retailers like Marks & Spencer, football teams, or political parties. "People see themselves as consumers. Brands have to come to them. People change their allegiances not individually, but en masse. The gradual swing of the pendulum has had its day."

The panel included former Home Office minister John Denholm, who chairs the influential home affairs select committee. He claimed there was a "tangible sense of disappointment" in Labour's record.

-The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2004