Editor's comment: Nation needs leader to trust after years of scandal, lies, law-breaking, rule-bending and pork-barrelling

From my formative years as a cub reporter, staring up at the oil paintings of former editors, lined up along the walls of the concourse of the then Yorkshire Post headquarters, a building of Brutalist architecture standing with its chest puffed out on Leeds’ Wellington Street, it was the one you wanted to work on. The flagship. The mothership. It was, and perhaps remains, an intimidating yet exhilarating news brand - but especially to those on the outside.

I recall poring over the pages, contemplating my move: this was once a newspaper with power and influence. Enough power and influence to take down a monarch. A titan of the regional and national press, with a reputation for quality and a track record for fearlessness.

And, yet: I remember thinking to myself that it wasn’t, from where I was sitting at least, bearing the hallmarks of a proud, fearless, objective, go-getting organ of repute. Had it and the team lost confidence?

As with any new leadership role, the early days, weeks and months are exploratory. I needed to listen, watch, feel The Yorkshire Post. I’m giving up all of my secrets, now, but in the early days I would be alerted to breaking news stories and rather than race onto the newsroom floor to bellow for action, I instead carefully and discreetly propped myself up on a filing cabinet to see who my leaders were out there in those moments. Who was alive and hungry? Who did others turn to for guidance, instruction and leadership and who either shied away from their responsibilities to this historic masthead - and to the county - or perhaps did not have the confidence to take centre stage in a newsroom peppered with big beasts who came with fearsome reputations.

From there, I set about assembling the team I knew I needed. People I could trust. People who cared about others as much as the job at hand. I kept hold of great people, promoted unrealised potential, recruited expertise and talent I knew we needed and empowered the newsroom to have faith in their talents and capabilities and to pursue and experiment with their own passions and ideas.

Those in whose eyes I could not see the desire, the mutual trust and respect; those who did not believe in the direction of travel we were about to embark upon as a team, well, we respectfully parted ways.

And the reason I share this with you is this: the next leader of this country will be faced with uncanny parallels when it comes to restoring the trust of the electorate and the reputation of the nation.

People have lost confidence in the leadership of this country. The civil service, the engine room of policy and politics, has lost confidence in the leadership of this country. Our international partners have lost confidence in the leadership of this country. Heck, even the Conservatives have lost confidence in the leadership of this country - the cerebral of mind and morally robust Lord Patten, a 24-carat Conservative of the highest calibre, told Times Radio Sir Keir Starmer has all but won the election.

In the run-up to polling day, leadership and character preside over policy and pledges. At this juncture, people aren’t even looking for a compelling, convincing leader behind whom they can rally and alongside whose convictions they are willing to stand. The people I meet and speak to would be happy with an Honest John. Steady. Trustworthy. Safe. Predictable. Someone to steer British politics away from the Siren calls on the Whitehall rocks where scandals, lies, law-breaking, rule-bending, pork-barrelling and gambling threaten to skewer not just self-centred, greedily-entitled MPs but the country’s reputation, too.

Broken promise after failed manifesto pledge and for 14 years, people are, by virtue of the longevity of Conservative rule, able to judge their mistakes and missteps, and that cannot be said of any of the Tories’ opponents.

Should, as Lord Patten suggests, Sir Keir Starmer triumph over Rishi Sunak at this General Election, it will not be because he set out an irresistible smorgasbord of campaign morsels. It will be because this Government’s energy, pizzazz, talent, luck and leadership ran out. And they only have themselves to blame for that.

And there’s that word again: leadership. Leadership aligned to a sense of duty and service, not self and associates. Leadership tethered to the Nolan Principles, set out in 1995, which, for too long have been considered a nice-to-have: selflessness; integrity; objectivity; accountability; openness; honesty; leadership.

Sadly, any future government that chose to adopt those principles, ensuring they define its conduct, would represent change. A change this country desperately needs if it is to turn around its fortunes at home and abroad.

James Mitchinson, editor The Yorkshire Post.