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As, by convention, the government is drawn from the party controlling a majority in the House of Commons, it can effectively decide what policies it wishes to implement and trust to its majority to ensure that its proposals become law.

Source: p 80, The English Legal System 2012-2013, Gary Slapper

1.5: trust to = [no object] Place reliance on (luck, fate, or chance):

I still can't differentiate this definition from just trust; what are the similarities and differences?
Must trust to must be used here? Why or why not?

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For clarity, lets boil the sentence down to the question at hand.

Choice A: The House can decide which policies to trust to its majority to ensure...

Choice B: The House can decide which policies to trust its majority to ensure...

For choice A, "trust to" would be better and more clearly stated as "entrust to."

entrust: Assign the responsibility for doing something to (someone): source

In this case, the majority is assigned the responsibility of policy implementation.

For choice B, the given definition of trust applies. In this case, the House isn't "entrusting" the majority with a specific task (here being policy implementation). The House is instead declaring general reliance on the majority to do their job (which includes policy implementation but also other things).

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