Conservatism, Poverty and Social Justice
Much has been made of the general election loss at the beginning of this month. I don’t want to add fuel to this already heated debate on why the Conservative party lost their majority but the reality is that more than 12 million people believe Jeremy Corbyn has the answers to the big problems that face this country. The tragedy at Grenfell exposed that this is most true concerning the policy areas of poverty, social justice and compassion for the least advantaged in our society.
Lord Ashcroft released polls showing poverty was the 4th most important issue for Labour voters when casting their vote (the NHS was 1st, spending cuts were 2nd). Labour voters felt more than others that we no longer lived in a meritocratic society, life for kids will be harder than it was for their parents, globalisation was a force for bad, and rights to housing, healthcare and education were inalienable. These are similar sentiments to those that drove the leave vote during the EU referendum. However, in this case, it seems clear that the Conservative party have lost the argument on poverty and social justice, and ceded it to Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity agenda.
This point has not been lost in the post-election hysteria. Fraser Nelson wrote a phenomenal article in last week’s Spectator Magazine entitled ‘What are the Tories For’. He rails against a default position for the Conservatives to present themselves as the better of two bad options. Instead they should make the argument for lower taxes and reformed welfare because ‘the aim is to reduce poverty, augment life chances and confront social evils’. For Nelson, the issue is one of communication, but it may also be deeper rooted.
The Spectator Magazine, with JRF, also held a conference this week on the what Conservativism means for fighting poverty. It raised some fundamental problems that lie at the root of our current discord. Firstly, Conservatives aren’t quick enough to fight on their record of reducing poverty. Jeremy Corbyn’s perfunctory repetition of ‘disgusting levels of poverty’ and ‘gross inequality’ have allowed people to believe the fake news story that poverty and inequality rates have risen under the Tories. In fact, poverty rates have fallen, considerably. ONS data shows that absolute poverty (being in relative poverty and being in relative poverty for 2 of the last 3 years) rose marginally in 2012, but has fallen since then from 8.6% to 7.3%, while relative poverty (income at or below 60% of median income) has fallen 2 percentage points since the end of the UK recession in 2008/9. The UK today has one of the lowest absolute poverty rates in the EU (lower than Norway, France, Ireland and Germany). This is not to forget that the Conservatives have overseen a Government that has created nearly 3m jobs and 1.8m more good or outstanding school places. All of this was achieved using welfare reforms that prioritised work and budget cuts that have cut the deficit by nearly 75%. Somehow though, Conservative politicians aren’t talking about these issues, and aren’t quick enough to defend an admirable record in Government so far.
Secondly, whilst the right is slow to defend it’s record on reducing material deprivation in the UK, they are equally slow at reminding the population that socialism means economic and social order that has impoverished million across the globe. People are slow to point out that tax rates reduce jobs and growth, union pay bargaining boards will force mass lay-offs in blue collar industries, and uncontrolled increases of welfare risks disincentivizing work further. High unemployment and dwindling state finances will do nothing for the poorest and disaffected in our society. Without a thriving business sector, tax revenues will fall and modernised public services will become increasingly unaffordable.
Lastly, the Conservatives need to remember exactly what we stand for with regards to social justice. The terms of the debate regarding public sending and austerity are rooted in the fact that Labour have got the discussion back onto inequality, relative poverty and poverty as a purely income related-phenomenon. The Centre for Social Justice, were ground breaking in redefining poverty as a complex phenomenon that is driven by 5 forces; unemployment, low educational attainment, addiction, debt and family breakdown. To relieve someone in a state of material deprivation, policy must support them to skill-up, get a job, get off drugs, get out of debt and maintain a functional home life. The moment, poverty is not seen through the prism of these five forces and is instead a function of simply how much money sits in your bank account, the debate turns to how much money can be poured into non-means tested welfare, pay bargaining, a universal income system and general anti-austerity programmes.
In short, the Conservatives need to recapture the social justice/poverty agenda if they want to stop Labour winning votes and winning elections. And if they want to recapture the social justice agenda, they need to start fighting it on their terms.
