A One Nation vision is what we need to cement our exposed class fault line
Stephen Crabb, Secretary for Work and Pensions, says the UK needs both social and economic change
STANDING outside Fenchurch Street station early on Wednesday morning handing out Remain flyers to the commuters pouring into the Square Mile from Essex, I was struck by the polarised reactions from those coming to work in the City.
Thumbs up and warm nods from the suits. In contrast, a stiff “you must be joking” or worse from the men in polo shirts and jeans, the men who work in the maintenance and facilities teams that keep the UK’s money machine turning.
And there it was. One of the main fault lines exposed by this referendum campaign is the near-total absence of trust among white working-class people in our core message of economic security.
Even in Sunderland and Flintshire, heartlands of the UK automotive and aerospace industries which rely heavily on the Single Market, bluecollar voters were not persuaded.
In old industrial communities like the South Wales valleys, which have seen billions of pounds of EU funding, a sense of political estrangement and abandonment drove voters even harder towards Brexit.
It is not enough for us to say we respect this tide which helped deliver
‘Britain’s working classes decided that the change they wanted was bigger than Westminster was offering’
the shock result on Friday morning, although we absolutely must. We should also recognise and respond to the underlying tensions which have been building for years and which partially explain the voting pattern.
The truth is that many white working-class people no longer have a natural political home. They see a political class in Westminster which now looks the same, dresses the same way and speaks the same strange language. Against a prevailing headwind of so much authoritative opinion about the importance of EU membership to their own livelihoods, people from these working class communities overwhelmingly decided on something different.
The key of course is community. It is within close-knit communities that shared experiences and outlook are formed, where private conversations touch on far more sensitive issues and have more passion than we politicians dare. And so Britain’s working classes decided quietly and collectively that the change they wanted was bigger than anything we at Westminster were offering.
Immigration of course tops the list. Even in places with low levels of immigration, this issue trumped all others on the doorsteps. For many people who don’t feel a part of this new age of globalisation, who are stuck in jobs paying barely more than minimum wage, who despair at their hollowed-out town centres, immigration is a proxy for all their concerns: opportunity, wages, housing, the future. In communities
which have changed rapidly over two decades or less as a direct result of immigration then feelings can run even stronger.
These communities, once cradles of both social activism and deep patriotism, cannot be ignored.
The Conservative Party, with its unique and historic One Nation mission, must speak for them.
In 2016 we should be living in a golden age of social mobility. The truth is, we are not.
Compared with competitor nations we have persistently low levels of social mobility. And the challenge is not just to get a few more comprehensive school kids into elite grade universities or professions. It’s more fundamental than that: recreating a positive cycle of aspiration, opportunity and outcomes in the poorest communities.
David Cameron spotted this challenge early on and his speech to party conference last year set down the challenge.
He understood compassionate conservatism long before the phrase gained currency and the work he has led on a new cross-government life chances strategy to smash down barriers of disadvantage is of huge importance. Getting this right must remain a core challenge for government in the months and years ahead.
In education, for example, the remarkable turnaround over the last decade in London schools needs to be replicated in other areas where standards have corroded.
The challenge simply is to end the scandal of so many kids on free school meals, especially white working-class boys, who are unable to read and write at the age of 11.
The referendum shone a spotlight on other divisions in our country too, not least the continuing challenge of Scotland’s separateness.
No matter what the purists in the Leave camp tried to claim, sovereignty is becoming a more complicated and fluid concept even within the United Kingdom itself.
In Ruth Davidson we have the strongest possible counterweight to the SNP.
But preserving the Union must keep the Conservative Party at Westminster awake at night too. Finding new ways of working constructively with the devolved administrations, including within the EU divorce negotiations, will feel laborious at times but will be key to saving our United Kingdom.
For too long One Nation was almost code for a wetter, weaker kind of Conservative politics. For this generation of Conservative politicians it should be the watchword for a muscular defence of British values and a fierce commitment to break down barriers to opportunity.
British values have always been created and rooted in the working class: the importance of your family, a deep connection with your community, and a genuine and unselfconscious love for your country.
Those values sought expression, however imperfectly, in the Leave vote last Thursday.
The incredibly difficult challenge now for government is to execute this mandate and to mend our divided society through real social and economic change.
A One Nation vision provides the best possible starting point.