The Striking Absence of the Working Class in UK Politics
The House of Parliament was coined with the term, ‘male, pale and stale’ following the May 2015 election – it was stated that the UK was one of the worst countries in Western Europe for female representation and only 6% of MP’s being from ethnic minorities. It is plausible to argue that British political institutions, and not just the House of Commons, remains unrepresentative of the British population in a descriptive sense. (Cowley, 2016).
Contemporary discussions surrounding representation in parliament have highlighted a shift in attitudes. Previously, it mattered less who MP’s were, as long as they were, ‘the person for the job,’ whereas since the early 2010’s there has been a demand for ‘a politics where politicians look like their constituent they represent. {As} that’s not what Westminster looks like today.’ As Ed Miliband repeatedly argued. (Cowley, 2016. P.123)
And arguably, the Government and House of Parliament has worked to successfully integrate a better representation of women and ethnic minorities. With 2019 creating a first in history for any party to have over 40% of female candidates. (Watson, 2020)
Source: (Watson, 2020)
Source: British Future (2019), House of Commons Library Briefing Paper CBP7529, UK Election Statistics: 1918-2019
Yet, in none of these discussions or campaigns to help improve diversity and inclusivity in the Houses of Parliament has there been mention of the unrepresented working class. As Allen and Cairney note (2015) politicians are somehow a class apart, they have never had ‘real jobs’ and therefore do not understand ‘normal’ people’s concerns and are distant and cut off from their voters. The working class are being left behind while ‘career politicians’ flood Westminster. Findings and reports published in Sutton Trust’s ‘Elitist Britain’ 2019 indicate how under represented the majority of the UK is, and how the privately educated and funded MP’s have dominated both parliament and government. (The Sutton Trust, 2019)
House of Parliament:
Firstly, we will analyse the absence of working class MP’s sitting in parliament. 29% of MP’s attended a Private school, despite this being down 4% since the last publication of ‘Elitist Britain, 2014’, it is still more than five times as much that of the population, which currently sits at 7% attending private schools. It is also important to note that the proportion of MP’s who attended private schools differ substantially by political party. In the Conservative party, just under half (45%) attended an independent school, compared to 15% in the Labour Party. However, the real misrepresentation in UK parliament rests with how many MP’s attended Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge University) compared to the electorate. 24% of MP’s in 2019 had attended Oxbridge, which had not changed since 2014, yet less than 1% of the UK population will study here. (Riegals, n.d.)
Source: (The Sutton Trust, 2019)
The Government:
While the absence of the working class is still high within MP’s, it is declining. Yet, the opposite effect is happening for those who form the government. Lizz Truss and Boris Johnson’s first cabinets had the highest proportions of private-educated ministers since the early 1990’s. (Ward, 2022). In 2019, 39% of the cabinet attended a private school and 57% attended Oxbridge, which is only 3% down from 2014. Again, these figures show the stark dominance of privately educated individuals in UK Politics.
Source: (The Sutton Trust, 2019)
Reasons why:
Rainbow Murray (2014) argued that we should view these statistics as fact of how OVER-represented the wealthier section of society is, and not focus on how UNDER-represented other groups are. We often see reasoning behind the lack of working class, or women or ethnic minorities in politics as being ‘a lack of supply.’ Therefore focusing on resources and solution to help engage these ‘minorities’ in politics. However, perhaps the aim should be dismantle the over-representation of MP’s and Cabinet Ministers who do not fully represent the people they claim to stand on their behalf.
To conclude, since the 2010’s the demand for ‘politics where politicians look like their constituents they represent,’ has been growing. Yet as these figure, shown above, suggest that despite the demand, the reality is very different. It is correct that areas have improved, such as slightly less MP’s are privately educated or Oxbridge students, yet it is unacceptable to justify a ‘representative’ government when said government is still so massively out of proportion to the electorate.
Reference list
Allen, P. and Cairney, P. (2015). What do we mean when we talk about the ‘political class’?. Political Studies Review.
British Future. (2019). ‘Diversity milestone’ as one in ten MPs now from an ethnic minority background. – British Future. [online] Available at: https://www.britishfuture.org/britain-elects-diverse-parliament-ever/.
Cowley, P. (2016). Political Recruitment and the Political Class. In: Developments in British Politics. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, pp.1–337.
Murray, R. (2014). Quotas for men: Reframing gender quotas as a means of improving representation for all. American Political Science Review, 108(3), pp.520–532.
Riegals, C. (n.d.). What percentage of the UK population goes to Oxbridge? [online] Quora. Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-the-UK-population-goes-to-Oxbridge#:~:text=About%200.6%25%20%2D%20in%20rough%20numbers.&text=I%20crunched%20quite%20a%20lot [Accessed 11 Mar. 2024].
The Sutton Trust (2019). Elitist Britain 2019. [online] Sutton Trust. Available at: https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/elitist-britain-2019/.
Ward, A. (2022). Parliament and government have a class problem. [online] British Politics and Policy at LSE. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/parliament-and-government-have-a-class-problem/.
Watson, C. (2020). House of Commons trends: How many women candidates become MPs? commonslibrary.parliament.uk. [online] Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-trends-how-many-women-candidates-become-mps/.
This blog post raises important points around the issue of class within Parliament, where in much of the discourse we discuss is focused on ethnicity and gender; it is rarely touched upon how important of a factor class remains for a majority of the population. It has long been a common theme that Parliament is largely middle to upper-class, white men. In recent years, there has been a large increase in the number of women and ethnic minorities making their way to the role of MP. It is also now not uncommon to see these groups in cabinet and Ministerial positions. However, as this blog post does well at noting, class is still a contentious issue which requires some more attention. They discuss how the percentages show just how many of those in Parliament were privately educated or attended Oxbridge compared to those in the wider population. Even when looking at Prime Ministers themselves, a disproportionate number attended the prestigious and expensive ‘Eton College’ in their youth. This narrows the specificity of this further. The majority of the UK remains in the working to lower middle classes, and yet these groups are grossly underrepresented in Parliament. With the increasing issue of the Cost of Living Crisis, for example, it would be interesting to see whether having more MPs from these groups would help solve these issues more diligently.
Just read this after posting my own thoughts (Dec 2024). Your point is clearly one that needs better analysis.
This blog post considers an important and often overlooked group when it comes to discussions of representation within politics, examining many statistics and information for both the Houses of Parliament and the Government itself. This exploration was aided greatly by the use of infographics to aid in the visualisation of many statistics showing the disparity between the general population and politicians in terms of education. However, this post may have benefitted further from considering angles other than education, such as income and property ownership, as well as a further exploration of the reasons why the working class continues to be so underrepresented within British politics.
This is a great article which discusses the omnipotent problem in British politics – class. The points are layed out well in discussing the elitist make-up of MPs – particularly discussing the recurrent trope of a persons (at least certainly Conservatives) route into politics ‘Eton –> Oxbridge –> MP’. This point is great and is evidenced well and highlighting it is important to advocate for change. The information and data presented about the government is also very insightful and frankly I certainly had not how many ministers in previous governments had been through private education.
However, I feel that other minorities could have been delved into a bit more. Age, sexuality, race and gender may also have been important to discuss more thorougly within parliament and within Government. This would make your post much stronger arguing how non-diverse Parliament really is – and certainly then discussing the effects this has on policy in relation to minority groups. Overall, it presents a strong argument, well proven, and is a good read.
Podem recomendar outros blogues/sites/fóruns que tratem dos mesmos temas?
It is difficult to define a granular analysis that really reveals who is running our country. We all know what our country’s majority looks like, not from a rich family, not University educated and no family connection to any significant political leaders (here or overseas). I would describe that cohort as ‘ordinary men and women’ and I doubt if many of them represent us.