Labour has lost the working class vote – now Theresa May can grab their support if she lowers the sky-high cost of living, says policy expert
Britain's new army of shop-workers, bartenders and cleaners form a new working class - and a huge wad of votes are up for grabs in UK politics
NO party can win the next election without the support of the so-called "new working class" of bartenders, cleaners and shop workers, a policy expert claims.
Labour has lost the support of the traditional workers and as a result, a huge wad of votes is now up for grabs in British politics, author Claire Ainsley argues.
She suggests new policies such as an extra bank holiday, a crackdown on soaring shop prices and a massive housebuilding programme.
Latest polling for YouGov shows that the Tories have overtaken Labour in lower classes of voters in the latest pattern of a worrying trend for the reds.
Britain’s workers have flocked away to other parties, and last year Theresa May picked up a record number of them.
Her policies squarely aimed at the "just about managing" sector of society paid off, as the JAMS proved they were not just set to vote for Labour.
But without appealing to the new working class, no party can win an overall majority, Ainsley - executive of social policy research charity The Joseph Rowntree Foundation - says in The New Working Class.
Mainstream politicians have focused too much on the middle class, swing voters, and not taken enough time to look at the changing nature of Britain’s army of workers.
Radical changes to Britain's economy and society means that the world of work is dramatically different than it was 40 years ago, and Labour voters have floated away.
Tony Blair often said that Labour had been too slow to respond to this change, adding: “Society had changed and we did not change sufficiently with it.”
Instead, they turned to the middle classes and tried to reach out to swing voters, in particularly aspirational workers who now might own their own home.
But by 2005, the working class support for Labour had tailed off, and they had begun to not vote for anyone at all.
The book says: “New Labour was right to suppose that Labour could now build a parliamentary majority based on the traditional working class alone, but they were wrong to assume those voters would have nowhere else to go."
Today many of the new working class now earn less than the average annual income of £27,000.
They are more likely to be female, and younger than the "traditional" working class image.
The book argues that to win the hearts and minds of the new working class, political parties needed to appeal to their values of family, fairness, hard work and decency.
Some of the suggested new policies include:
- An extra bank holiday to support the importance of family - with guaranteed time off for parents who work weekends
- A clampdown on excessive price rises for basic goods and services to keep them affordable
- A points-based immigration system so Britain can get the workers it needs, but that the public are happy with
- A national house-building programme to provide the homes Britain desperately needs
- MPs should be banned from having second jobs, and job perks should be scrapped
- Self-employed grafters and contract workers should get sick pay too
Author Claire Ainsley told The Sun Online: “There is still a working class, but it’s very different.”
She says that those working in the service sector, retail and hospitality all make up today’s working class - and it could reach around half of the population.
About 14 per cent of the population used to be considered working class, but that’s all changed.
“There is a working class, it’s new, and no political party is speaking for it,” she added.
“There are millions of people today on low and middle incomes, and politicians need to wake up and start paying attention to them.
“There’s a prize on offer for the parties who understand this.”
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People on low and middle incomes are less likely to associate with Labour now than they used to, she said.
“Working class support for Labour has declined, it’s started to rise a bit for the Tories, and has definitely increased among the SNP.”
Ukip also hoovered up a certain amount of the working class votes, but that has collapsed since the vote to leave the European Union in 2016 and the party struggles to find a new purpose.
Ms Ainsley said the message for politicians was simple - tell voters what you are going to do, and then show them when you’ve done it.
The New Working Class: how to win hearts, minds and votes, was written by Claire Ainsley, executive director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation