No UK party currently has what it takes to end poverty, research finds: ‘We need a radical rethink’
Labour has had the most significant drop in ambition in its policies to tackle poverty since the 2017 general election. The researchers call for a ‘radical rethink’
Labour leader Keir Starmer, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. Images: Wikimedia Commons
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Every major political party in the UK lacks the “boldness” needed to tackle poverty and inequality, a new study shared exclusively with Big Issue has found.
Led by researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Nottingham and Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) UK, the report found that policy proposals from the major political parties are “shallow, inconsistent and largely disconnected from the realities faced by people living in hardship”.
It revealed Labour had the most significant drop in policy ambition to end poverty of all parties between 2017, when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, and 2024, when Keir Starmer’s Labour won the election.
Dr Gerardo Javier Arriaga-Garcia, research fellow in the City-Region Economic Development Institute at the University of Birmingham, said this report is part of an ongoing project and this is their latest effort in the “commitment to fight injustice and eradicate poverty”.
“We need a new political imagination,” he said. “It’s not really about tweaks. That’s what we’ve seen over the past almost decade – tiny tweaks, and it needs something more. It feels like we need a moral and a political commitment to change the rules of the game.”
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Researchers have analysed Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat manifestos from 2014, 2017 and 2024. The Green Party was reviewed twice and Plaid Cymru once. UKIP was reviewed in 2015, and Reform UK was in 2024.
The Scottish National Party and parties in Northern Ireland were not included, as manifestos were not released within the timescale of the original audit publications, and the 2024 election was called early.
The report, which was evaluated by 29 academics at 23 UK universities, considered various policy areas which might impact poverty. These include crime and justice, disability, education, employment, fiscal policy, housing, money and banking, social care and social security.
Dr Lee Gregory, associate professor in social policy at the University of Nottingham and Chair of ASAP UK, said: “The boldest plan to tackle poverty was probably embedded within the Labour manifesto in 2017 where there was a more explicit consideration given to the issue of poverty.
“It might have appeared quite radical. It certainly wasn’t the most radical, but it did offer a more focused attempt to challenge some of the existing policy approaches to poverty and coming up with a range of new ideas.”
Gregory said the “most radical approach” would be looking at the “interconnections between policy areas” – such as housing, employment, education, health, income – and taking a “holistic approach” to tackling poverty and its root causes.
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The manifestos were scored out of five in different policy areas. No party has ever scored a four or above, and there has been decreased attention to poverty from all parties in recent years.
The Conservatives went from a 1.7 in 2015 to a 1.5 in 2017, and then a 1.3 in 2024, scoring the lowest of all parties measured across the three manifestos.
Labour went from 2.6 in 2015 under Ed Miliband, up to 3.6 in 2017 under Corbyn, and then down to 2.1 in 2024 under Starmer.
The Liberal Democrats were at 3.2 in 2015 and 2017 and then fell to 2.9 in 2024.
The Green Party consistently scored the highest for policy ambition, although the researchers claimed “commitments were not always feasible”. It too faced a drop from 3.9 in 2015 to 3.4 last year.
UKIP was only at 1.4 in 2015 and Reform fell even further to 0.9 in 2024, the lowest score across all manifestos. Plaid Cymru scored 2.4 in 2024.
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Gregory said: “The is a general lack of ambition to tackle poverty, and that’s what we need to revisit and challenge. It’s been a consistent problem in our society for over 100 years. We’re not seeing any real progress, particularly in the last 15 years or so, to tackle poverty. We’re seeing the same policy approaches being used time and time again, with just slight variations to those approaches across the political spectrum.”
He added: “There’s probably a need for a a new, more radical rethink of how we tackle poverty in the UK and a need to question some of the fundamental systems and institutions that are in place because they’re clearly not being effective.”
It follows recent Big Issue research which found that 72% of all Brits disapprove of Keir Starmer and his government’s approach to tackling poverty. This had risen since September 2024, when only 54% of Brits felt the government wasn’t doing enough for people in poverty.
Big Issue launched a new ‘Poverty Zero’ policy report on 25 June, urging the government to create mandatory, legally-binding targets to end poverty in the UK.
Arriaga-Garcia said: “It’s not about left or right really. It’s really about right and wrong. And I think voters and campaigners and communities really need to know that this is really happening. No major UK party is currently doing what it takes to end poverty but they could – if we demand it.”
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