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The Byline Intelligence Team exposes the poverty and inequality that has burgeoned during 11 years of Conservative rule
The Conservative Party has been in power for 11 years. It has had almost 4,100 days to reshape Britain. But who has benefitted?
Stories of persistent structural inequality have been a regular feature of Conservative rule under leaders David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. Recently, these stories have revealed that white working class pupils have been failed by years of neglect; that almost 400,000 more UK homes are heading for fuel poverty; and that the COVID-19 death risk is nearly four times higher in the poorest areas of England. Even the Chancellor has been reported to the UK’s statistics watchdog over claims that he misled the public over levels of poverty in Britain.
Despite this, the Prime Minister remains resolute, claiming that strong Conservative leadership is “the yeast that lifts the whole mattress of dough; the magic sauce; the ketchup of catch-up”.
Such rhetoric has been part of the Conservative lexicon for years. In 2010, Cameron’s election campaign was pitched on the notion that “we’re all in this together”. The message was intended to galvanise the public in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, promising that no-one would be left behind.
But, in the years that followed, were such promises kept?
Data compiled by the Byline Intelligence Team suggests not.
Taking 12 key indicators, it is clear that poverty and inequality have perceptibly risen over the past decade. Though the relative prosperity of some groups has increased, it has fallen for large swathes of the population.
The percentage of people living in relative poverty is higher today than in 2010
Despite Conservative claims that reducing state intervention can act as a solution to poverty, the percentage of individuals living in relative poverty (those with household incomes of less than 60% of the median income) is higher now than when David Cameron took office in 2010.
Although poverty rates fell between 2010 and 2014, they have subsequently continued to rise and, in 2019/20, the percentage of people in the UK in relative poverty (before housing costs) was almost two percentage points higher than it was in 2010/11. By 2019/20, it was estimated that 14.5 million people in Britain were in poverty after housing costs – and it is likely that the Coronavirus pandemic will exacerbate this.
The percentage of children in poverty has risen at an even faster rate
The rise in overall poverty rates in the past decade has been somewhat suppressed by a decline in poverty among workers who do not have children. However, at the same time, poverty rates among children have risen sharply.
There has been a 13% increase in the child poverty rate (after housing costs) meaning that, today, nine children in a classroom of 30 are living in poverty.
The same is true for the poverty rate among pensioners, which has been slowly creeping up in recent years.
In-work poverty is on the rise
When the Conservatives took office in 2010, jobs were presented as a magic bullet. Getting a job, the nation was told, was the foundation of collective and individual pr