Just a step to the right: changing attitudes to poverty and welfare

If, like approximately 99% of the British people, you haven’t spent all week obsessing about Britain’s position in the EU, you may have noticed new research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on public attitudes to poverty and welfare, which brings yet more grim news.

Not only does the report provide further confirmation that attitudes to welfare are hardening but more worryingly it sets out that this is particularly marked amongst Labour supporters. In 1986, 41% of Labour supporters believed social injustice was the main reason for people living in poverty. By 2011 that had fallen to 27%.  At the same time those thinking laziness was to blame increased from 13% to 22%.

What’s more, Labour supporters increasingly hold the view that welfare recipients are “undeserving” and that the welfare state encourages dependency. 46% say if benefits were not as generous, people would stand on their own feet, up from 16% in 1987.

The report is miserable reading for those of us who care about social justice and inequality and raises the ever more pressing question of why this shift is happening and what Labour as a party should do about it.

The why is not straight forward. The factors which influence public opinion are clearly complex and multi-faceted. But there is an important and salutary lesson here.

Concerns about welfare dependency and the belief that those claiming welfare are “undeserving” increased most among Labour supporters in the period in which Labour moved more to the right on this policy area. Public attitudes, the research suggests, have tended to move in line with political rhetoric and Government policy.

Of course, there is an argument that actually the reverse is true. That political dialogue reflects public attitudes and that Labour moved to the right in response to opinion. Attitudinal change undoubtedly has complex roots and clear causation is not easy to establish. The truth is probably murkier – a feedback loop between tougher political rhetoric, media coverage and harsher public opinion alongside wider economic and social factors.

But, whichever way you cut it, it is clear that moving to the right certainly does not soften opinion. If you keep saying there’s a big issue with welfare dependency, if you keep reinforcing the notion of “skivers”, if you keep suggesting the system is broken, more and more people will believe we have a problem and that we are a nation full of Sky Plus watching, string vest wearing, lager swilling, fag smoking, good for-nothing-scroungers sponging of the hard working taxpayers of this country.

We cant out tough the right on issues of poverty and welfare and hope this will somehow abate concerns.

Instead we need to address the issues that affect people’s lives and are drivers of real poverty. We need to continue to speak on the structural issues: housing, jobs that pay, childcare – on which I think we’re getting much right.

But we also need a compelling alternative narrative on poverty and welfare. We need to tell a story about what it’s really like to be poor and to need welfare support. We need to speak to our supporters’ values and tap into the fact that they care about their neighbours and believe we should look after those who vulnerable.

And then we need to repeat this message consistently and with discipline until it starts to seep into people’s consciousness. This will not be easy and it will take time and persistence. But I absolutely believe that it is the Labour Party’s job to stand up for people living in poverty who need the support of the state. It is our job to tell their story in a way which resonates. It is our job to make sure that poverty is a priority for the public and a priority for the next Labour Government. We have to find a way to do this.

We need to be brave and we need strong leadership. We must not chase votes by engaging in a race to the bottom. Lowest common denominator politics will not get us anywhere. Step to the right and public opinion is likely to step with you.