‘Working class communities deserve a bold climate plan from Labour’

As climate change starts to hit home in the UK, with wildfires burning across the country and some areas experiencing the fourth heatwave of the summer, people might have started to ask themselves where our politicians, and the government, are.

It has never been easier to list all the ways in which climate change is affecting the lives of people here at home. More than a thousand schools shut their doors because of the heatwave in June, with kids missing more than 7 million school days across the country, hospitals declared critical incidents due to the heat and, after the driest July in almost 190 years, half of England and all of Wales are now officially in a drought and farmers have sounded the alarm on food shortages. The Met Office have said that climate extremes are becoming the ‘new normal’ for the UK, with their recent State of the Climate Report showing increasing temperatures in the summer and wetter months in the winter.

When you close your eyes and think about what’s most important to you, most of us will think about our families, our homes, our communities, the nature that surrounds us, and maybe our favourite place or sports team. Climate impacts put all of this under threat no matter where we live in the UK, and whether it be heat, flooding or food price rises, disproportionately affect working class people and communities.

READ MORE: ‘The new Chancellor can define a new economics, with nature at its core’

Our Prime Minister will be thinking about the homes in Hindley, Hindley Green and Platt Bridge that have been impacted by severe flooding up in Makerfield or nearby football clubs like Wigan Athletic who have faced game cancellations due to extreme weather. And he will find that the people of Makerfield, and all of us, need to see more for the government on protecting us from the impacts of climate change now and stopping them getting worse in the future. As Burnham has said himself, in the past: “the thinking at the centre of government has not caught up with the changing world.” We need to see action to transform our homes, public services and favourite spaces through short-term adaptations like cool air, increased shade, better ventilation and flood defences as well as longer-term adaptation measures to ensure our buildings, old and new, are resilient and, where possible, link adaptations like cool air to long-term net zero investment like solar on school rooftops.

The story we are so often told in the pages of newspapers and by politicians is that working class voters just don’t care about climate change. You can check in with any of the top public opinion researchers to find that there is little evidence for this. Persuasion UK, YouGov, Climate Outreach and More In Common all, in fact, found the opposite. In fact, the latter, found that Rooted Patriots, who make up 20% of the population, are the segment most like to identify as working class and are swing voters who often decide elections, are both worried about climate change (68%) and don’t think the government are doing enough to tackle it (41%).

Become a friend of LabourList and join our community. Our friends support our vital non-factional work and get access to exclusive content and events. 

At Round Our Way we’ve done some polling with Hope Not Hate and Climate Outreach which shows that more than 50% of people say they are more fearful for what’s to come in the future, and more than 48% feel more anxious about climate change after recent heatwaves. This sits across all types of voters with 57% of Labour voters, 53% of Conservatives voters and 45% of Reform voters saying that they felt more anxious. The polling also finds that 51% of people feel that, in light of the heatwaves, it’s more important for the Government and businesses to tackle climate change which rises to 63% when looking at just Labour voters and even holds for 35% of those who intend to vote for Reform.

Taking a bold, front-footed position on climate is a no-brainer for Labour. Work by Persuasion UK shows that while core Reform voters are hostile to the green transition ‘Reform curious’ Labour voters are not and so watering down, pulling back or delaying climate ambitions will likely not move ‘Reform curious’ voters either way, but will potentially push voters from the progressive side of the coalition away.

But too often politicians misread where the public are on this issue – recent analysis from IPPR found that 57% of Labour MPs assume support for net zero is lower than it is.

And as our extreme weather gets worse, and impacts hit, what will people make of politicians that failed to protect communities and failed to stop things getting increasingly worse because they thought it didn’t work for them politically?

Everybody deserves to be safe and protected – from climate change already here and the impacts coming down the road. Anybody, of any political stripe, arguing that we must deviate from the very things that will protect our working class communities, whether adaptation measures or net zero which is vital for protection now and in the future, are locking those communities into less support and more and worsening impacts.

Labour has proudly protected, championed and supported working class communities throughout its history, and should ensure it does so once more when it comes to climate. Now is the time for Labour to take a bold step forward and show that they are the ones to solve this – to protect us, make our lives better and secure the future.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook. You can also write to our editor to share your thoughts on our stories and share your own. The best letters are published every Sunday.

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • BECOME A FRIEND: If you enjoyed this, why not consider becoming a Friend of LabourList? Help sustain our journalism, and of course Friends do get benefits…
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].