Ed Miliband’s attempt on Friday’s Today programme to define the ‘squeezed middle’ has made some people question the point of the term. Shadow chief secretary Liam Byrne tried again on Sunday to pin down the concept. But the big question remains: is the ‘squeezed middle’ just a political slogan – as meaningless as ‘the deserving majority’ – or does it refer to something real, and a big, new challenge for political leaders?
The Guardian this morning reports that “Labour says ‘squeezed middle’ earns up to £50,000”. The counter-intuitive result is based on analysis by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies.
A new report shows that cuts, rising inflation and stagnating pay will make lower middle classes £720 a year worse off. It shows that wages will fall in real terms until 2013.
Conservative commentators are beginning to sense the unease over Tory policy on the ‘squeezed middle’, reports Liam Thompson.
Southern voters abandoned Labour at the last election because the party failed to address their insecurities, new research by Policy Network reveals.
Britain should heed the lessons of the US when understanding what has gone wrong for the ‘squeezed middle’, argues Harvard research associate Sophia Parker.
