Our political parties leave professional sport and Parliament trailing in the corruption stakes

Published on Thursday 9 December 2010 13:38

Britons think political parties are the most corrupt sector of UK public life, according to a poll.

Political parties topped a list of sectors judged to be most corrupt, with 65.5 per cent, ahead of professional sport on 56.9 per cent and Parliament on 55.7 per cent.

The UK education system was deemed by respondents to be the least corrupt sector with just 10.8 per cent, followed by the military on 13.3 per cent and the National Health Service on 14.4 per cent.

More than half (53.4 per cent) of Britons who were questioned said they thought that corruption had increased in the past three years, according to the survey of 2,014 adults conducted for Transparency International UK.

In contrast, only 2.5 per cent of respondents believed corruption had decreased either a little or a lot.

Although only a small minority claimed to have been directly affected by corruption (13.7 per cent), a third said they had had their suspicions about a specific event.

The poll was published to mark International Anti-Corruption Day.