The Financial Times tops the list of 15

This article was updated on 16 October 2023 with more recent figures, including an additional broadcaster (Sky News)

Our survey in May revealed the extent to which Britons trusted 32 different news organisations. Now a new YouGov survey of MPs asks the same question of 15 prominent news outlets.

The Financial Times tops the list, with 69% of MPs considering the pink pages to be trustworthy – including 19% who describe it as “very trustworthy”. Only 9% say the FT is untrustworthy, while 20% say it is neither trustworthy nor untrustworthy.

Next up is The Times, which 66% rate as trustworthy. More left-leaning newspapers The Guardian, and The Independent fare less well, although this is unsurprising given the size of the Conservative majority in the Commons. Slightly fewer than half (46-47%) of MPs trust news from these outlets, although this is still higher than the number who distrust them, which is 30% for the Guardian and 23% for the Independent.

The Telegraph rates to the these papers, with the 47% of MPs branding it trustworthy compared to 26% who do not.

The i has a lower trustworthy rating, at 34%, although it notably has the highest “neither trustworthy nor untrustworthy” score among newspapers of 38%, suggesting a potential lack of familiarity with the younger newspaper. Only 22% of MPs actively distrust it.

BBC News is the highest ranking broadcaster, with 60% of MPs saying it is trustworthy, compared to 56% for Sky News, 53% for ITV News and 50% for Channel 4 News. Channel 5 News comes lower, at 35%: few MPs actively distrust it (16%); instead they have the highest score for “neither trustworthy nor untrustworthy” among broadcasters, at 46%.

There is a clear grouping of organisations that are not trusted by MPs. This includes the main tabloids – the Sun, the Express, the Mirror and the Daily Mail – as well as the broadcasters GB News. The former three are distrusted by 46% of MPs while for the latter two this rises to 56%. Only 20-25% consider them trustworthy.

Among Conservative MPs – the only party with a sample large enough to look at in detail – the results shift in much the way you would expect, with trustworthy perceptions increasing towards news outlets which are friendly towards the party and falling for those which are typically critical (or perceived by the Tories to be).

See the full results here

Photo: Getty