IT will take “a long time” for Labour to regain the trust of voters, one senior MP has said.

Bridget Phillipson, the party’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, made the comment while appearing on Sky News yesterday.

In an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the MP was asked, when 116,000 people in the UK have died after testing positive for Covid-19 and the economy has suffered a huge knock, “why isn’t Labour doing better in the circumstances?”

The question comes as the Conservatives strengthen their support in England.

Referring back to the drubbing of the 2019 snap General Election, Phillipson responded: “Little over a year ago we suffered one of the worst general election defeats in our history so we always knew it was going to take a long time to regain the trust of the British people once more.”

Hailing Keir Starmer’s leadership, she went on: “I think we’ve made tremendous progress.

“If you’d said to me in December 2019 that we would have made the progress we’ve made already, I would’ve taken off your right arm to have been making such fantastic progress.

“But of course, after such a terrible defeat, it will take time.”

Phillipson insisted her party “have pushed the Government” during the pandemic, which she called “a crisis like no other”.

She told the programme: “We are in the middle of a pandemic after all and we absolutely have to be focused on getting this country through this crisis.”

Last week, polling from Savanta ComRes put Scottish Labour on track to lose seats at the upcoming Holyrood election.

According to that poll – the 21st in a row to show majority support for Scottish independence – Labour is at just 16% on the constituency ballot and 18% on the list, which would see 19 MSPs elected to Holyrood, a decrease of five.

As well as preparing for that contest, the party is currently selecting a new Scottish leader following Richard Leonard’s resignation.