The ‘White Working Class’ Disadvantage is Real – the race story built on top is not
Reform’s material interest in a racial explanation for attainment gaps is its economic agenda, which is designed to benefit high earners – so it needs to supply an ‘enemy’ to working-class voters that is not Reform’s policies.
Labour’s interest points the same way. Adopting the language of white working-class grievance allows it to be seen to address the concern, while continuing to operate inside the same fiscal settlement that produced the gap.
