The survey of 5,000 adults undertaken by YouGov for the Good Law Project (GLP), found that 28 per cent of people have no trust in judges, while 31 per cent said their level of trust had fallen in recent years.

Jolyon Maugham, the founder of GLP, said: “What the YouGov data shows is that the more you look like the archetypal judge the more confidence you have in judges: people in ‘higher’ social classes have more confidence than those in ‘lower’ social classes, older people have more confidence than younger, white people have more confidence than people of colour, straight people have more confidence than gay, able-bodied people have more confidence than disabled, and the general population has more confidence than trans.”

Trust was lowest among people aged 18-24 (of whom 56 per cent trust a lot/a fair amount), as well as those in lower social classes (56 per cent) and trans people (46 per cent).

In 2019, Lady Hale described the judiciary, most of whom are over 50, as like “beings from another planet”.

Mr Maugham said the results “point to a need for scrutiny of why these differential levels of trust in judges exist and how they can be addressed.

“Many of these different levels of confidence are present for other professions, too, as the data shows. It is not our point that they are unique to judges.

“But what the differences do point to is a need to interrogate why it is true of judges, if the law is to maintain its moral legitimacy.”