In March, BritainThinks published a survey exploring the views of the growing number of us – seven out of 10 – who define themselves as ‘middle class’. As I described in the April edition of Progress, we discovered six discrete groupings united by a fondness for cafetiere coffee and Cath Kidston. Just one group, the smallest at 2.7 million voters, and the hardest-up, expect to vote Labour. How to win the rest has been the focus of much debate since then.

But what about the 24 per cent who believe themselves to be working class? While the project about the middle class was being devoured by the political classes, BritainThinks has been analysing the data to understand more about what sets the working class apart.

Some of the findings are perhaps predictable. Working-class households earn significantly less – they have an average income of £24,268 compared with £37,137 for middle-class households. They have fewer savings: 35 per cent say they have ‘none’ compared with 11 per cent of the middle class. They have less expectation of inheriting: 54 per cent say they expect ‘nothing’ compared with 24 per cent. And most do not anticipate a comfortable retirement – just 24 per cent do, compared with 54 per cent of the middle classes.

Finances are fragile and working-class respondents were 25 per cent more likely to agree that ‘it is a real struggle to make the money last until the end of the month’ and 24 per cent are more likely to agree that ‘it would be a big financial problem for me to replace a large item such as a washing machine or fridge.’ Coping with these immediate and pressing concerns dominates. Fifty-eight per cent of the working class agree that ‘I am more concerned with my day-to-day finances than providing for later life.’

Understandably, these problems impact on working-class aspiration.

They are 19 times more likely to expect their children to be working class than middle-class parents. They are less confident about their children’s chances to go to university, buy a home or find a secure job.

Some of the survey findings were even more worrying. Working-class people were, quite simply, less happy. They are more likely to describe themselves as ‘worried’, ‘nervous’ or ‘fearful’ while middle-class respondents were more likely to say they were ‘hopeful’, ‘proud’ or ‘happy’. They were more likely to agree ‘I don’t have the energy to be active in my spare time’, and, puncturing the notion of vibrant working-class communities, more likely to say that they ‘often feel lonely’.

Labour leads with working-class voters – though they are less engaged in civic life and less likely to vote. They are more cynical and disillusioned – 16 per cent more say they ‘don’t know who to trust nowadays’. They are also less likely to think that government can help them: 54 per cent rather than 40 per cent of middle-class respondents agree that ‘government doesn’t do anything for people like me.’ Recent election results have borne this out, showing turnout dropping in some safe Labour seats, and natural Labour voters toying with alternatives like the British National party or the UK Independence Party.

In the coming weeks BritainThinks will be running focus groups with voters who define themselves as working class to get an up-to-date sense of how they see their lives and how political parties are responding. The first of these sessions was held in Rotherham on 15 June this year. What item did people bring along to symbolise their class? Symbols of work: workmen’s gloves, screwdrivers, engineering tools, or, poignantly with the younger ones, ‘dole books’.

Phot: ro_buk