During the past four elections, nearly a third of people who were eligible to vote chose not to. Amid claims that trust and confidence in the UK’s politics and election system have never been worse, the BBC spoke with those who are strongly considering foregoing their vote or have yet to make up their minds.

In his recent report for the National Centre for Social Research, electoral expert Sir John Curtice found record numbers of voters saying they “almost never” trust governments to put country before party or politicians to tell the truth when in a tight corner.

“The public is as doubtful as it has ever been about the trustworthiness and efficacy of the country’s system of government and the people who comprise it,” Sir John warned.

“It doesn’t matter who wins,” says Krishna Bade, who lives in Milton Keynes.

“Nothing changes and if there is a new prime minister I highly doubt they will change anything.. or do anything, for the UK.”

The 19-year-old says he has not registered to vote.

“I don’t really care about UK politics, I’m sorry,” he says. “They have made everything worse.

He says his view is the result of what he has “heard and seen” and from “watching the news”.

“It is not really looking good,” he adds. “I don’t think it would matter who I would vote for, nothing is going to change.”

He does, however, leave the door open for his mind to be changed.

“It depends, if they are actually making things change then yes I would probably change my mind.”

Mother-of-three Aramintah Pickford, 27, is studying hair and media make-up.

She says that although she has voted in the past, she will not be voting this year, despite acknowledging women have fought to get the vote and her strong aversion to “wasting” her right.

Ms Pickford says she feels let down by politicians who, she claims, “say things to get the votes”.

“I don’t believe them and you do switch off to it,” she says. “You get so used to hearing what they are going to do – ‘elect us and this will happen’ and then you elect them and it doesn’t happen.”

She says her faith in politics and the political system has been eroded.

“After years of seeing people vote for certain parties and it not coming to fruition you end up thinking ‘what’s the point?’.

“Who do I vote for when none of it is going to come into place anyway?”

“A lot of working class people don’t really have much out there helping them,” she says. “I feel if I am going to vote for somebody they need to stick to what we would like to happen.

“The state of the country at the minute is quite bad, people are struggling and we need a bit of support, so stick to what you say.”

She does, however, want to be proved wrong and to have her faith in politics restored in the future.

John Read, 73, from Northampton, contacted the BBC via the Your Voice, Your Vote project.

He wrote: “I have no faith in any of the candidates at all and for the first time in my life will not be voting.”

He says he feels it would “be impossible” for him to vote this time around.

“I’ve always felt the need to vote,” he says. “This year I feel really strongly that I have no faith in any of the political parties or their leaders at all.”

That, he says, leaves him feeling “pretty dreadful”.

“Many years ago people got the vote for us and that leaves me feeling dreadfully bad. But I really cannot vote for anybody.”

Like Mr Read, Christine Markham says she has become despondent about politics and politicians in general.

“I would like to see some integrity, honesty and respect for the electorate,” the 77-year-old, who lives in the Daventry constituency, says. “And I don’t feel we’ve had that from any party in the last four or five years.

“I feel really let down. We put our faith in politicians. I don’t feel they have any respect for the people who voted for them.”

She describes herself as being “stuck in a quandary” because she cannot work out who to vote for.

She says she thinks she knows who she would vote for as her local MP.

“But do I want that party in office? I don’t know,” she adds.

At Milton Keynes College, the BBC met numerous students who were politically engaged and keen to get out and cast their vote.

Some, however, were less certain about voting and told the BBC they either feared they did not know enough about politics yet to vote or were simply not interested in politics.

Computing student Tobi Nubi, 18, wants to be a data analyst or a software developer after he leaves Milton Keynes College.

He says he does not feel equipped with enough knowledge yet to make an informed voting decision.

“What I hear about politics, I hear through social media,” he says. “So I hear what other people say.

“If they [politicians] do more and people talk about it more then I will listen or hear about them.”

He says although political matters have entered his social media feeds, he tends to “scroll past them” unless they are getting a lot of responses.

Emily Grant, 18, is training to be a hairdresser.

She says she actively avoids political talk whenever possible.

“I try and stay away from politics as I don’t know much about it,” she says.

“I’ve had clients ask me if I am voting and I have told them I am not voting.”

She describes a disconnect between the world of politics and the world she sees around her.

Ms Grant says she is concerned about various conflicts around the world and “the cost of living crisis”.

She will not, however, be voting.

“None of my family nor anybody around me have ever voted,” she says. “It doesn’t come up in conversation.”

• Live: Follow the latest news about the UK general election
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• Voting: Who can I vote for in the general election?
• Chris Mason: Reassurance from Labour with a dash of paranoia
• General election 2024: All BBC stories and analysis

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