Labour is set to put social class on a par with race and gender in an effort to target white inequality.
In a major shake-up of the Government’s approach to equality, ministers are preparing to set up a new unit to improve the opportunities for the white working class.
Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson will announce today that the Government will be developing a specific team to reduce class inequality.
The new unit will sit alongside existing ones which focus on race, gender, disability and LGBT rights, within the Office for Equality and Opportunity.
It will be replacing the Social Mobility Commission (SMC), which was set up by the Conservatives to provide information and data on the disparities between the classes.
One source told the Times the SMC had “lost its way”, saying the Conservative Party remained influential in the commission.
A senior Government member criticised the SMC, describing it as ineffective because it did not have any meaningful power to reduce class inequality barriers.
They said there was also no evidence of the commission “directly informing Government policy”.
Bridget Phillipson will make the announcement of the new equalities unit today
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They said: “For millions of people in this country, being working class is just as much a part of who they are and the opportunities they have as their race or their gender.
“Whitehall has never properly acknowledged that. Reducing inequality is a big part of this Government’s agenda and class will rightly now be at the heart of that work.”
An early priority of the new unit will be a socioeconomic duty, requiring public dobies to consider how they can improve the lives of less advantaged families, such as services, transport and budgets.
It will also reform the way the Government calculates funding for deprived areas on services such as health and childcare.
The commission’s latest report included Yorkshire as a region still grappling with deindustrialisation (Bradford pictured)
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The new unit would become a “centre of excellence” the Government source said, producing data on class, socioeconomic background and public services.
The closure of the SMC follows a Cabinet Office review of its operations and forms part of a wider effort by ministers to scrap a number of quangos in order to cut costs and bring functions back under direct Whitehall control.
Established in 2010, the commission’s aim is to “create a United Kingdom where the circumstances of birth do not determine outcomes in life”.
However, it holds no power over Government policy and cannot hold public bodies to account, with its role limited to offering advice to ministers when asked.
Former Labour minister Alan Milburn, who is now leading a separate review into young people not in education, employment or training, previously chaired the body before resigning in 2017.
At the time, he said the Government was “unable to devote the necessary energy and focus to the social mobility agenda”.
The commission is currently led by Alun Francis, who also serves as chief executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College, supported by two deputy chairs and four commissioners.
Around 20 civil servants within the Cabinet Office make up its secretariat, though a Whitehall source indicated only some of these staff would move across to Ms Phillipson’s new unit.
The commission’s latest annual report warned former industrial communities across Britain continue to face “entrenched disadvantages”, highlighting significant regional inequality.
It pointed to weaker childhood conditions, limited job prospects, lower levels of innovation and stalled growth in affected areas.
The report identified Yorkshire, the North East, the Midlands, Wales and Scotland as regions still grappling with the long-term effects of deindustrialisation, describing roughly 50 years of economic disadvantage and decline.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, welcomed the creation of a new unit, arguing Britain now faces a fresh “class challenge”.
He said the traditional promise that hard work leads to a secure job, home and better opportunities for one’s children “is unravelling for more and more of us”.
The professor added it was right for the Government to prioritise class and social mobility, provided the initiative had long-term backing and genuine independence.