Two of thirds of Britons hold the opinion that the super rich have too much influence over UK politics, according to polling from Opinium for the Fairness Foundation. The charity’s new report details that 25 senior figures from politics, business, and academia hold a consensus that growing inequality risks societal collapse.
Supporting that idea, the polling found 63% of Britons believe the super rich hold too much power in UK politics, 40% think the same about business and religion and 38% for international bodies like the EU.
The wealth gap as documented by the Fairness Foundation
The report builds on previous research from the Fairness Foundation that found a dramatic increase in the absolute wealth gap over a recent decade. The gap between the poorest 10% and richest 10% of people in the UK increased by 48% between 2011 and 2019. For the actual amounts: in 2011, the richest 10% held £7.5 trillion in wealth and by 2019 that had increased to £11 trillion. (And the wealthiest 1% owns not far off half of this, in both cases). By contrast, the poorest 10% went from £12bn in debt to £11bn in debt during that time.
There’s also been a relative decline of the middle class. The wealth gap between the middle 10% and the richest 10% rose by 49% over the same period.
“Further deterioration without intervention”
Between the group of 25 figures from society, “there was agreement with the suggestion that we are currently on a trajectory of decline, with wealth inequality undermining social cohesion and a risk of further deterioration without intervention”.
They argued that “wealthy interests have effectively captured media and political narratives, using their dominance of the national conversation to argue that the status quo is the only way”. Indeed, only 7% of UK people attend private school. Yet research from the Sutton Trust found that 43% of the UK’s top journalists went to a fee paying school.
Another way to see how the very rich dominate politics is through the education of politicians themselves. Boris Johnson was the 20th prime minister (out of 58) to have attended Eton. More broadly, only 11 prime ministers were educated at non-fee paying schools and many of those at grammar schools.
We know a super rich minority funds the Conservative party. But even Labour under Keir Starmer’s stewardship has super rich people bankrolling it. Since he became leader in April 2020, the party has accepted 11 donations of one million pounds or more from an individual or corporation. In turn, those 11 donations total a whopping £23.6m from just a handful of people.
“Reform” the system says the Fairness Foundation
The report recommends “reforming our political system, for example by strengthening our inadequate lobbying regulations.” The Labour Party government is so far doing worse than the previous Conservatives on corporate lobbying, Spotlight on Corruption warned in a December briefing.
Of 12 recommendations for government transparency and the lobbying register on Spotlight on Corruption’s ‘scorecard‘, the Tories fully met three, while Labour has fully met just one proposal.
Neither party has committed to including so-called ‘informal’ lobbying arrangements in the transparency releases, meaning friendly influence remains off the books. And consultant lobbyists do not even have to declare the subject matter of their lobbying at present.
The report notes there are precedents to significant reforms: “The most obvious recent example is the 1945 creation of the welfare state, but… Britain in the 19th century avoided the revolutions that swept continental Europe through a series of enlightened economic and political reforms, such as the Great Reform Act and the repeal of the Corn Laws”.
Featured image via the Canary
