Charities and campaigns were left fuming, following revelations that Theresa May's office had dropped any references to "burning injustices" in British society for fear of it's play in Labour's favour.
According to The Times this Tuesday, the Conservative Party has abandoned any discussion on social inequality, for fear it will help boost Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party’s popularity.
The Prime Minister’s first Downing Street speech two years ago was peppered with references to the “working-class family” and the struggle of those “born poor”.
Now it seems that rhetoric has been ditched, as Labour is seen to be a more apt party dealing with questions of social inequality, poverty, discrimination and housing.
Tory insiders told The Times that the party’s MPs are being “discouraged from using it in their campaign leaflets after internal party polling suggested that Mrs May was not trusted to fulfil the promises.”
But social justice campaigns are not at all pleased, with the Conservatives electoral strategising.
Anti-poverty research group Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden told Left Foot Forward:
“Inequality is the great scourge of our age. The financial crisis made huge numbers of people realise that our economy and society are run by and for big business and the super-rich, and this stoked the political crisis we’re now living through. But inequality has got no better, no action has been taken to transform our society into a fairer, more equal one.
“So it’s no wonder the government have stopped talking about it – if you judge them on their record it’s utterly disastrous on this most burning question of our age.”
The chief campaigner went on to argue that to beat inequality there’s a need for better taxation and regulations on big businesses and finance. Something that seems to be anathema to the Conservative Party.
Dearden also added:
“No wonder May is staying quiet.”
The Equality Trust was also left aghast at the revelations, saying the development and lack of governmental initiative was “extremely worrying”.
The Trust’s executive director Wanda Wyporska told Left Foot Forward:
“To see the Conservative Party apparently willing to ignore discussing health inequalities, discrimination and the deep damage that high levels of income inequality is inflicting on our society is truly shocking.”
The Times also revealed that a group of 30 Conservative MPs have now created a social justice “caucus” to tackle the PM’s inaction on the matter.
Wyporska said the Equality Trust “applauded” their move.
She added:
“One thing the Government could do would be to enact Section 1 of The Equality Act 2010, which would Place a duty on public bodies to take socio-economic disadvantage into account when making policy. “
War on Want executive director, Asad Rehman, echoed the sentiment saying:
“The reality is our public services have been trashed, resulting in over 120,000 austerity-linked deaths, we’ve seen an unprecedented surge in hate crime and millions of children and pensioners pushed into poverty.
“Politicians won’t win back public trust by ignoring these crises and continuing to scapegoat migrants as the cause of all our problems. These are the burning questions of our time; politicians must address the root causes with conviction, not bury what matters in peoples’ lives in a bid to pull the wool over our eyes.”
Joana Ramiro is a reporter for Left Foot Forward. You can follow her on Twitter for all sorts of rants here.
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