‘White working class’ label masks hidden experiences of all working class communities, warns report

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Focus on the “white working class” and their "national pride" in political discourse surrounding Brexit is ultimately detrimental to white people in working class communities, a report has found. The Minority Report, co-published by race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust and the Centre for Labour and Social Studies, highlights "inadequacies" in the current debate around class in the UK, saying it is dividing the multi-racial working class and pitting white people and ethnic minorities within this group — who it says often share similar experiences — against each other. It suggests that the re-emergence of class analysis following the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election in the US has focused principally on the white working class and their cultural or social exclusion, rather than on how “structural inequalities deny the working class access to opportunities, resources and power.” Dr Omar Khan, director of the Runnymede Trust and co-author of the report, said it was "utterly hopeless" to think the national pride promoted by Mr Farage and others would provide white working class people with real solutions to problems in their lives, adding that politicians benefit from fostering a "sense of white victimhood" as a way of winning votes. The think tanks behind the report are calling on Home Secretary Amber Rudd to revive a measure included in Labour's Equality Act but abandoned within months of the 2010 election, known as the “socio-economic duty”, which would oblige public authorities to take into account disadvantage and inequalities when making decisions about policies.​ Dr Faiza Shaheen, director of CLASS and co-author of the report, said the Brexit vote was being used by politicians to justify the concept of a “white self-interest”, which ultimately distracts from the “real issues” affecting the whole working class, such as low wages and funding cuts.