Quality | 2010.01.24
Harriet Harman puts class at heart of election battle
Labour deputy leader to make inequality a key dividing line with Conservatives
Harriet Harman will reopen the politically explosive debate over class tomorrowby insisting that it remains the single biggest factor in determining individual achievement.
In a speech designed to put the fight against inequality at the heart of the general election campaign, the Labour deputy leader will unveil a new "inequality bible" which admits that the government has merely slowed the trend in rising inequality despite more than 12 years in office.
The 420-page report, commissioned by the government, has been written by a panel chaired by Professor John Hills.
In her speech, Harman will say the report, to be published next week, makes uncomfortable reading for Labour, and sets out home truths about the scale of the challenge.
But she will also seek to create dividing lines with the Tories by arguing that the evidence shows socio-economic background, not parental warmth, is the main determinant of an individual\'s success.
The report\'s findings are politically sensitive since they may revive accusations – furiously denied by Gordon Brown – that Labour is embarking on a "class war".
Harman will say that public policy can still have a significant impact on inequality by intervening at certain key points in a person\'s life, such as pre-school years or re-entry into work after having children.
She will insist that the big choice at the next election will be which party people trust to ensure that as a society "we do not return to the days when inequality was spiralling and where a tiny minorty of the population got all the rewards".
In her speech to the leftwing pressure group Compass, Harman will draw on the findings of the report next week, and say it will "clearly document for the first time how inequality is cumulative over an individual\'s lifetime and is carried from one generation to the next". She will say: "Persistent inequality of socio-economic status – of class – overarches the discrimination or disadvantage that can come from your gender, race or disability."
Harman describes the report as equivalent to the royal commission on income and wealth commissioned by Harold Wilson in the 1970s. She sees it as part of a new determination by Labour to confront class-based inequality, maintaining that this does not represent class war, or a move to downgrade other sources of disadvantage, such as race or gender.
"The question of equality is not just rooted in our traditional values and linked with our past, it\'s essential for the future. The public want an equal society, one where there is not a yawning and growing gap between the bottom and the top," Harman will say.
The findings of the report include:
• When three-year olds are assessed on a measure of their school readiness, those from the poorest 20% of the population on average score only half as well as those from the richest 20%.
• Children who are eligible for free school meals do significantly less well at school at every stage. At key stage 4, only 27% of them got good GCSE passes last year, compared with 54% of those who were not eligible for free meals.
• Only 4% of children receiving free school meals at age 15 went on to higher education, compared with 33% of those who were not eligible.
• Average life expectancy in the most affluent areas of the country is around 13 years longer than in the poorest areas. Men in the richest 20% of the population are four times more likely to be members of an occupational pension scheme, with the financial security that goes with it, than those from the poorest 20%.
Harman is facing an uphill battle in the Lords to impose a new responsibility on public authorities to try to reduce socio-economic inequalities.
The highly symbolic clause in the equality bill is being opposed by the Tories, and the Liberal Democrats have agreed only to abstain.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/[...]-harman-class-general-election
