This article is part of a blog series published in partnership with Academics Stand Against Poverty UK, who developed their third manifesto audit in the build up to the 2024 election. They analysed the policies in the manifestos in relation to poverty to assess how confident they are that they will enable British society to flourish.
The King’s Speech is an important part of the political process, setting out the government’s legislative agenda for the year to come. For this new Labour government, there is perhaps an additional pressure – the expectation to act quickly, capitalise on its majority and deliver promised change. But the ASAP UK Manifesto Poverty Audit suggested a lack of ambition to tackle poverty across all parties, including Labour: something which the King’s Speech reflects.
The government has set out a series of bills and ambitions which will shape the coming months. There was a lot outlined, offering the impression of a government hitting the ground running, seeking to deliver on a number of its manifesto aims. Its intent was clearly to distinguish itself from the last few years of Conservative governments, by demonstrating action on several pressing issues facing the UK.
The build up to the speech saw increasing pressure in the media for the government to scrap the two-child limit on social security payments. This reflects a significant amount of evidence demonstrating that this one move would drastically reduce child poverty in the UK. The calls for this shift have now come from across the political spectrum, from within the Labour party through to Reform, and a range of think tanks and campaign groups in between. Thus, there will be frustration and disappointment that the King’s Speech announced no moves to scrap the cap.
Specifically, in relation to child poverty, the government has announced a Child Poverty Taskforce. While, at present, little is known about the focus and remit of this taskforce, there are some signs that there is a lack of ambition to tackle poverty in the immediate term. For example, there is nothing in the King’s Speech regarding Labour’s manifesto commitment to review Universal Credit and create a fit-for-purpose social security system.
Of course, poverty is not just about income, although this features heavily. Some of the wider announcements in the King’s Speech do fit within the anti-poverty agenda: the Employment Rights Bill, improvements in transport and the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, which will introduce free breakfast clubs in all English primary schools (helping to address the impact of hunger on learning) and put caps on the number of branded items schools have as part of their uniform policy (which can be a punitive cost to parents). These will no doubt contribute in the medium to long term to addressing hardship but will offer little by way of short-term alleviation of poverty.
As noted in the Manifesto Poverty Audit’s discussion of education, the focus has been on issues of child poverty and the conditions of schools (following the RAAC scandal). But this overlooks the wider importance of education in tackling poverty. While ensuring students are not hungry is crucial, little has been said about the wider educational experience or about ongoing educational inequalities which have longer-term implications for youngsters’ future prospects in the labour market.
The central importance of the ASAP Manifesto Poverty Audit is that it seeks to examine a range of policy domains all of which contribute to an anti-poverty agenda. It offers a series of joined-up analysis, guided by the notion of flourishing which applies to all people equally. Across the King’s Speech we can see a government agenda which seeks to pursue change and start to make a difference. But, as we noted across all the party manifestos, there is a general lack of ambition to reduce poverty expediently.
Delaying action, when some quick wins are available, will result in many households’ experiencing poverty more deeply, and for longer, as they wait for the promised economic growth that Labour is holding on for before taking action. During that time, the quality of life, access to opportunities and ability to flourish of many people in the UK will be stunted. The experience of poverty is not something that is easily reversed. Its impacts are now, and its scars reach into the future. As we noted in the Manifesto Poverty Audit, Labour’s anti-poverty ambition seems to be lower than the policy agenda set out in the 2017 manifesto. If Labour is to deliver real change to facilitate the flourishing of its citizens, it needs to address this lack of ambition.
Lee Gregory is an Associate Professor in Social Policy at the University of Nottingham, School of Sociology and Social Policy and is Chair of Trustees for ASAP UK. He has been involved in previous manifesto audits as an auditor and oversaw the development of the 2024 Audit and associated blog series.
Find out more about the audit and download the report at ukpovertyaudit.org.
Read all the articles in the Academics Stand Against Poverty blog series here.
Bristol University Press/Policy Press newsletter subscribers receive a 25% discount – sign up here.
Follow Transforming Society so we can let you know when new articles publish.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blog post authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Bristol University Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.
Image credit: PA Images via Alamy Stock Photo