UK’s former industrial regions face ‘entrenched disadvantages’ going back decades
Former industrial communities across Britain face “entrenched disadvantages” stretching back decades, according to the latest social mobility research.The findings raise particular concern about the rising number of people between 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training (Neets), which was one in seven between 2022 and 2024.The Social Mobility Commission’s state of the nation report also highlighted “extreme regional differences”, citing poorer childhood conditions, fewer job opportunities, less innovation and lack of growth in the hardest-hit areas.The report said Yorkshire, the north-east, the Midlands, Wales and Scotland were still living with the impacts of deindustrialisation, describing “half a century of economic disadvantage and decline”.However, it also identified “beacons of hope”, highlighting favourable conditions for future innovation and growth in Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol, Cheshire West and Chester, Edinburgh, Oxfordshire, Reading, West Berkshire and Manchester.
Alun Francis, the commission’s chair, said economic opportunities had become “over-concentrated” in specific places, even with the positive signs in some areas,“Entire communities, often in post-industrial, seaside towns have been left behind with deep-rooted disadvantages,This is the defining social mobility challenge of our generation,” he said,The report – the largest collection and analysis of data on social mobility in the UK – notes that the proportion of young people securing professional jobs has grown, with 48,2% of 25- to 29-year-olds in such roles in 2022-24, up from 36.
1% in 2014-16.However, it also highlights a widening gap between those from more privileged backgrounds and those from working-class families who are able to access these jobs.Women from less well-off backgrounds continue to find it harder to get higher-paid jobs than their more privileged peers, the commission said.The Social Mobility Commission is a statutory advisory body that monitors social mobility across the UK and makes recommendations relating to England.International comparisons in the report show the UK sits alongside countries such as France and Japan in giving young people a strong chance to exceed the educational attainment of their parents.
It also found the UK had similar job mobility rates to those in other large western European countries, such as Germany and Sweden, where fewer people had moved into better-paid roles as growth in professional roles had slowed,The annual report was published after the commission presented evidence to parliament last week on what success meant to people living in Britain today,It found that respondents placed less importance on professional or managerial status, or earning a high income, than on work-life balance, job security and doing work they care about,Health, physical and mental wellbeing, relationships with family and friends, education and social connection were rated as the most important measures of success,Owning a home and having savings were also valued, while many respondents said they did not believe life in the UK was “fair”.
The evidence also showed that class identity was viewed as “sticky”, with more than three in four people describing themselves as the same class as their parents.While 53% of respondents identified as working class, fewer than a third were employed in occupations officially classified as such.The research also found that those already at the top of the social class ladder were more concerned with climbing it than those at the bottom.Economic power was increasingly important to younger people.Data from the Social Mobility Commission shared exclusively with the Guardian found that young people were more likely than older generations to define success as having a highly paid job.
More than half of 25- to 34-year-olds said this was important, compared with 28% of people over 65.Younger people were also less likely to say professional success meant doing work they felt passionate about.
Reform-run Kent council accused of blocking scrutiny of claim it saved £40m
Reform-run Kent council has been accused of trying to block scrutiny after it refused, for more than five months, to produce evidence that it had saved more than £40m by cancelling two environmental projects that did not exist yet.Polly Billington, a Labour MP in Kent, first requested background to the claim via a freedom of information (FoI) request in July. She said the subsequent delay had not been explained and seemed to show the council was embarrassed at what the documents would show.Kent county council said it rejected any suggestion of a cover-up, and that it planned to release the information to Billington, the East Thanet MP, later this week.The saga began when the Kent leader, Linden Kemkaran, told a council meeting on 10 July that the authority had saved £32m by scrapping a programme to make properties more environmentally friendly, and £7
Reform candidate who told Lammy to ‘go home’ questioned other MPs’ loyalty to UK
A Reform UK mayoral candidate who said David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean” has suggested that at least eight other politicians from minority ethnic backgrounds do not have a primary loyalty towards the UK.Nigel Farage’s party has so far refused to condemn Chris Parry, a retired naval rear admiral who has been picked to contest the now-postponed Hampshire and the Solent mayoral election for the party, over his comment about Lammy, the deputy prime minister.In a post in February, referring to a news story about the UK government supposedly considering talks about reparations for slavery – which ministers have in fact rejected – Parry is said to have written: “Lammy must go home to the Caribbean where his loyalty lies.”Labour said the emergence of the other comments, all made since May this year, showed Reform had to act swiftly, saying he was “dragging his party further into the gutter”.The bulk of the comments by Parry, all made on X, involve him quote-retweeting posts by others about the politicians, some originating from far-right or openly anti-Islam accounts
Lib Dems call for inquiry into hostile foreign state interference to include US
An inquiry into interference by hostile foreign states in the UK should be extended to cover the actions of Donald Trump’s US, the Liberal Democrats have said.In a letter to the communities secretary, Steve Reed, whose department is leading on the independent review, the Lib Dems said the US government’s explicit support for far-right nationalist parties in Europe amounted to outside interference.The US national security strategy, set out this month, said Europe faces “civilisational erasure” due to migration and EU integration, and that Washington should “cultivate resistance” within the continent.The document used language echoing the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying several countries risked becoming “majority non-European”, and praised the “growing influence of patriotic European parties”.The inquiry into the effect of financial influence and other interference is expected to primarily focus on Russia and similar hostile states
Farage avoids police investigation over alleged electoral law breach
Nigel Farage has avoided investigation over claims his general election campaign breached electoral law last year – in part because too much time has passed since the alleged offences.The Reform UK leader was told on Thursday that Essex police could not open an investigation because it was now time-barred, more than a year having passed since any alleged offence. The Electoral Commission, which had been asked to open a separate inquiry into other elements, said it had not identified any undeclared spending that should have been reported.“We have assessed a report relating to an allegation around misreported expenditure by a political candidate in connection with the general election in July 2024,” Essex police said.It said the report had been made on 5 December
From Keir as Eliot Ness to Radon Liz on YouTube – the 2025 alternative politics awards
You can hear the sighs of relief. Not from the MPs who are packing up to slope back to their constituencies for the Christmas recess, but from the rest of the country. Finally, the year is coming to an end and there will be few chances for our politicians to do any further damage before they return to Westminster in January.The psychodrama is finally done. We can all go to bed vaguely hopeful that the world won’t have taken a further turn for the worse by the time we wake up
Angela Rayner to publish memoir amid talk of potential Labour leadership challenge
Angela Rayner is writing a memoir about her rise to become deputy prime minister and her subsequent fall from grace, the Guardian can confirm, in a move that will be seen as an attempt to set the narrative ahead of any leadership contest.The book, which will detail the Labour politician’s life story from her impoverished childhood and leaving school at 16 while pregnant through the union movement and the Labour party to the second highest office in the land, is to be published in the second half of 2026.Rayner has kept a relatively low profile since quitting as deputy prime minister in September after failing to pay stamp duty on a flat. She has only intervened publicly on policy issues close to her heart, such as workers’ rights, on which she warned the government not to “blink or buckle” on the bill.Often considered a potential successor to Keir Starmer, she declined to rule out running for the leadership or returning to frontline politics in her first public comments after stepping down, saying she had “not gone away”
WH Smith tries to recover bonuses from ex-bosses as watchdog investigates accounting error
Rail accident investigators issue warning over sensors on landslide monitors
Retail sales unexpectedly fall in Great Britain in run-up to Christmas
UK borrowed more than expected in November amid pre-budget pressure
MPs to question Vodafone on ‘unjust’ treatment of store franchise owners
BP opts for culture shock with new CEO appointment, but the timing is odd