“Any party that is opposed to some form of wealth tax or the nationalisation of key utilities such as energy and water cannot seriously claim to be on the side of working people.”
Vincent Conquest reviews one year of the Starmer Government – and what it has meant for workers and young people.
We’re a little over a year on from Labour’s landslide election win in 2024, a win that many hoped would be a victory for workers and a victory for young people. However, we live in a time of political disappointment, and this Labour Government has shown time and time again that it is not representative of the working class.
Labour figures now like to proudly proclaim, Labour is the “party of work.” Not those who do work but work itself – a purposeful turn of phrase used to distract from the lack of vision or belief in a shift of wealth and power to a struggling working class.
While certain pieces of legislation, such as the Employment Rights Bill and the Renters’ Rights Bill, and of course the increase in the minimum wage are genuinely positive, this Government has failed to address the deep decline in living standards, our crumbling public services and spiralling inequality.
The current iteration of the Labour Party is struggling with young people. Unpopular stances on immigration and LGBT rights, and the continuation of support for Israel in its ongoing genocide in Gaza, has led many young people to look for alternatives.
In November, Labour also announced that university tuition fees would increase by over £300 – squeezing students in an already overpriced market. The problem for the Government is that, in switching their electoral focus to voters who currently would vote for Reform UK, they have failed to represent the interests of young people, but now young people have alternative places to go with their vote.
Another key issue for young people is housing – and Labour has made movement on banning no-fault eviction. But it’s slow and cautious, and tenants’ union ACORN has claimed that “on affordability the bill is lacking.” For example, Labour have protected landlords’ profits over renters’ rights by introducing market-linked annual rent increases, rather than imposing outright caps.
While there are positives with Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, it does not go far enough. Once implemented, it will introduce measures such as day-1 basic employment rights and bans on zero-hour contracts and fire-and-rehire, though the Bill does specify that it is only a ban on “exploitative” zero-hour contracts – a clarification which many view as a form of watering-down. But the Bill does not repeal any of the anti-trade union laws introduced by Conservative governments over the last years.
Issues such as the NHS, transport, and other public services are of major importance to workers and young people. Rail public ownership is a victory for workers, and it’s popular, though for many the process is too slow and too unnoticeable to make a tangible difference in people’s lives. Raising the bus cap from £2 to £3 is less popular – particularly for people who have to commute for work. If you were to commute to and from work five days a week, that’s an average loss of £40 a month.
All these issues that workers and young people are faced with, in a time of stagnant growth and stagnant wages, lead to a perception of failure and disappointment, at a time when the country is so clearly crying out for change. We see the Government aim to make cuts to disability support and pensioners’ Winter Fuel Allowance – despite the former resulting in a partial U-turn and the latter being U-turned on almost completely.
A Government that attempts to balance its books on the backs of the poor, the sick and the disabled in order to protect “working people” – despite working people facing rent rises, extortionate travel costs, a cost-of-living crisis, and a general sense of despair at the poor state of the country – will never succeed in fundamentally redistributing any kind of real power to a long neglected working class.
In reality, any party that is opposed to some form of wealth tax or the nationalisation of key utilities such as energy and water cannot seriously claim to be on the side of working people, as Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have tried to portray themselves as. The money to fix public services broken by successive Conservative Government underfunding has to come from somewhere, and politicians from the main parties are all too eager to dismiss redistributive measures such as wealth taxes. Often, this leads to spending cuts, which hurts the working class far more than it does the super-rich.
The Labour leadership should listen to the range of voices within its party, who so often voice what many in the country think, and remember who they are in power to represent.
Until the structure of power and wealth is properly challenged, the Government will by default favour the interests of the super-rich, and it will inevitably be those who work and young people who bear the burden for that.
- Labour Outlook is running a series of daily articles, reviewing one year of the Starmer Government across different key areas.
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