In this paper, we document changes in political trust in the UK throughout 2020 so as to consider wider implications for the ongoing handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed data from 18 survey organisations with measures on political trust (general, leadership, and COVID-19-related) spanning the period December 2019–October 2020. We examined the percentage of trust and distrust across time, identifying where significant changes coincide with national events. Levels of political trust were low following the 2019 UK General Election. They rose at the onset of UK lockdown imposed in March 2020 but showed persistent gradual decline throughout the remainder of the year, falling to pre-COVID levels by October 2020. Inability to sustain the elevated political trust achieved at the onset of the pandemic is likely to have made the management of public confidence and behaviour increasingly challenging, pointing to the need for strategies to sustain trust levels when handling future crises.

在本文中，我们记录了整个 2020 年英国政治信任的变化，以便考虑对 COVID-19 大流行的持续处理的更广泛影响。我们分析了 2019 年 12 月至 2020 年 10 月期间来自 18 个调查组织的数据，其中包括关于政治信任（一般、领导和 COVID-19 相关）的措施。国家事件。2019 年英国大选后，政治信任度较低。它们在 2020 年 3 月英国开始实施封锁时上升，但在今年剩余时间内持续逐渐下降，到 2020 年 10 月降至 COVID 之前的水平。