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The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Labour's relationship with working class ‘broken' as analysis reveals it is now the party of wealthy
Labour has been warned that its relationship with the working class is broken as stark new analysis shows it is increasingly becoming the party of the wealthy. New analysis by YouGov shows Britons earning more than £70,000 are now more likely to vote for Labour than any other party in a shock turnaround in UK politics. Poorer voters have have turned to Reform, whose popularity is soaring in the polls. Nigel Farage has declared that his party is 'now the real party of the working class'. It comes as Sir Keir Starmer was forced into a U-turn over plans to slash benefits for the poorest and disabled in a stand off which calls into question his own authority less than a year in office. The prime minister needed the £5bn a year savings, but faced a rebellion from 122 Labour MPs who signed an amendment designed to kill his welfare reform bill. Leading pollster Lord Robert Hayward warned that the findings were part of a trend which has seen Labour's traditional relationship with the working class 'broken'. He said: 'The working class has always been socially conservative but dependent on the state, so voted Labour. The link has been broken — firstly by Brexit, then by immigration. 'There is now a fairly large cohort of the upper class dependent on the state and which is also not affected so much by immigration but is also internationalist in mindset.' Luke Tryl, from pollsters More in Common, said one reason for their discontent with Labour was that 'the working class have borne the brunt of the cost of living crisis. And also when public services are not working, the working class are more dependent on them'. The YouGov polling analysis of a massive 17,000 UK voters taken over three weeks has shown that in households with an income of £20,000 or less almost a third (32 per cent) now back Reform UK. Labour trail 13 points behind Farage's party in the poorest category, on 19 per cent. But in the wealthiest category of households with £70,000 income or more they lead with 31 per cent. This compares to 17 per cent for both the Tories and Reform among wealthier voters. The findings come after Reform has deliberately pivoted to trying to pick up working class voters by promising to end the two child benefit cap, restore winter fuel payments to pensions, give the lowest earners a pay rise with a £250,000 levy on non-doms and nationalise British Steel. Yougov found that Labour defectors are less likely to have been educated to degree level, more likely to be classed as living in working class households and are more likely to have voted to leave the EU. Professor Sir John Curtice linked it to Reform being more popular with older voters. He noted: 'Reform voters are older; lots are retired so have lower incomes. Also they are less likely to be graduates and thus to be in well paid middle class employment.' The analysis found Labour have a third (33 per cent) of all voters aged between 18 and 29 but Reform have more than a third of all voters aged over 50. According to Yougov the top reasons for voters abandoning Labour since the last election is 'broken or not delivered promises' on 29 per cent. Other issues are 'cost of living' 24 per cent, 'too rightwing' 22 per cent, 'made no difference' 21 per cent, and high immigration 20 per cent. The poll found that more than half of 2024 Labour voters who would now back Reform, 52 per cent, live in working-class households. At last summer's general election last July, 35 per cent of Labour supporters were in working-class households. Now four in 10, 41 per cent, of those who would now support another party are working-class. Those who have switched to Reform cite high immigration (62 per cent) and broken promises 44 per cent as their top two reasons while 48 per cent who went to the Greens cite 'too rightwing'. Labour's to Reform UK switchers are half as likely to hold a degree than those sticking with Labour, while around half (49 per cent) voted Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum, with a similar number (52 per cent) classed as C2DEs (working class household). Three in ten Labour to Reform UK switchers (31 per cent) voted Conservative in the 2019 election, compared to 7 per cent of those remaining loyal to Labour. In an interview on Saturday the Labour peer Lord Glasman said recent election results were 'more than a wake-up call, it's an immense statement by working-class voters that they've lost trust in us. That can't be argued with, it's got to be engaged with.' In the wake of welfare row, the Labour peer Lord Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor, also told the BBC's Today programme that his party needed a 'reset'. The polling taken 29 March and 8 June also revealed a surge in support from younger voters (18 to 26) to the Greens with 26 per cent overall backing the party from that age group. Startingly 34 per cent of women aged 18 to 24 now support the Greens in a category which used to be strong for Labour. But the polling has found that criticisms that Labour now targets students and the public sector as its core vote above the traditional working class appears to be justified by the findings.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Mapping the Architectural History of New York's Chinatown
Over the last 150 years, Manhattan's Chinatown has seen a slew of changes to its urban footprint, reflecting the political and economic forces that continue to shape this immigrant community. Most recently, luxury developments have cropped up, often replacing older buildings and threatening to not only push out the neighborhood's working-class residents, but also erase the community's history. 'A lot of this history is not documented,' said Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, an artist based in Chinatown. 'Especially now post-pandemic, we have a lot of changes going on. Elders are passing away, gentrification, old-school businesses that have been around for forever are closing their doors or have closed their doors.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Union leaders' exit from DNC exposes ‘mind-boggling' tensions inside Democratic party
As the Democratic party fights to rebuild from a devastating election defeat, the abrupt exit of the presidents of two of the nation's largest labor unions from its top leadership board has exposed simmering tensions over the party's direction. Randi Weingarten and Lee Saunders quit the Democratic National Committee, saying it isn't doing enough to 'open the gates' and win back the support of working-class voters. Ken Martin, the new DNC chair, and his allies told the Guardian that the party was focused on doing exactly that. Weingarten, president of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers, resigned after Martin did not renominate her to serve on the DNC's important rules committee. In her resignation letter, Weingarten wrote that education, healthcare and public service workers were in 'an existential battle' due to Donald Trump's attacks and that she did not 'want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent'. Saunders, the long-time president of the 1.3-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also issued a critical statement. 'These are new times. They deserve new strategies,' he said. 'We must evolve to meet the urgency of the moment. This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward … It is our responsibility to open the gates [and] welcome others.' Several DNC officials asserted that the two departures were a 'tempest in a teapot', insisting that Martin is working to have the DNC welcome more people and battle against Trump. Weingarten and Saunders evidently felt sore that their candidate for DNC chair, Ben Winkler, the head of Wisconsin's Democratic party, lost to Martin, the officials suggested. Steve Rosenthal, former political director of the AFL-CIO, the main US labor federation, said the resignations were an inarguable blow to the DNC. 'When something like this becomes public, there's clearly a spotlight on it,' he said. 'Giving the longstanding leadership role that Randi and Lee have played in the Democratic party, and at a time when the party is trying to desperately improve its image with working-class voters and remake itself in a lot of ways, this is really unacceptable.' In an interview, Weingarten said she wished the DNC was conducting an all-out nationwide mobilization to defeat the Trump/GOP budget bill, which would throw an estimated 11 million Americans off health insurance, cut food stamps to millions of families and cause the federal debt to soar by over $3tn. DNC chair Martin told the Guardian that, under his leadership, the DNC was already doing what Weingarten and Saunders were calling for. 'I've always called myself a pro-labor progressive,' Martin said, noting that he had been a union member and labor organizer. 'My family grew up on programs that would be cut if Trump's tax scam passes. Winning back the working class and stopping Trump from harming families is exactly where our focus is.' Martin added that in his nearly five months as DNC chair, the committee has held 130 town halls and launched an 'aggressive war room' to take on Trump. 'My first action as DNC chair was pledging to have strong labor voices at the table,' Martin said. 'Our job is to win in 2025, 2026 and beyond.' But their resignation statements signal that Weingarten and Saunders have a very different view from Martin of what the DNC is doing on his watch. Several DNC officials said the pair might not be up to date with the DNC's activities across the 50 states. Weingarten told the Guardian that Martin and the DNC are not showing nearly enough urgency in opposing the Trump/GOP budget bill. 'The number one issue in the next two weeks is: how do we help fight the GOP budget bill that faces almost two-to-one public opposition,' she said, adding that the DNC should be going all out to help House and Senate Democrats torpedo the bill. 'We can be the voice and be out there with stories about how the budget bill will hurt, and the DNC is a perfect place for doing that,' Weingarten said. 'You got to win hearts and minds now, not in October 2026. That's the kind of thing that we've been looking for since January. We have to be a party that wins on the ground.' Artie Blanco, a union activist and DNC vice-chair, said that under Martin, the DNC had been fighting hard against the budget bill. 'There are over 16,000 Democratic volunteers making phone calls across the country in targeted congressional districts about the GOP budget, and how it will be devastating to working people,' Blanco said. Weingarten voiced dismay about not being renominated for the rules committee. 'It was definitely a sign that my input was not sought any more and [not] appreciated,' she said, stressing that the AFT 'will continue to be a leader in electing pro-public education, pro-working family candidates' and planned to be 'especially engaged' in the 2025-26 elections. Jane Kleeb, president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, said that Weingarten's and Saunders's 'claims that Ken and the DNC are not standing up for working people and not standing on the side of unions and union members is laughable'. 'Ken has been on the front line to bring unions back to our party,' added Kleeb, who is also chair of the Nebraska Democratic party. 'He has appointed more union leaders than any other [DNC] chair' – and put unions at the forefront while chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, before he assumed the DNC's helm, she said. Stuart Appelbaum, the DNC's labor chair, and president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, took issue with the statements Weingarten and Saunders made about Martin. 'I am thrilled that Ken Martin is prioritizing the importance of having labor at the table and has ensured that there is strong labor representation in every part of the DNC,' Appelbaum said. He added that Martin 'understands that working people are the backbone of the party'. Michael Podhorzer, a political strategist and former AFL-CIO political director, said the Democratic party has for decades not focused enough on working-class voters. He said Democrats would have a tough battle winning back blue-collar voters. 'The experience of many American working people is they feel left off the radar,' Podhorzer said. Democrats, Podhorzer noted, have suffered the greatest loss of support in communities that were 'gutted' after the 2008-09 recession; from the signing of Nafta, a trade deal with Canada and Mexico; and from normalized trade relations with China. Nafta and normalized trade with China were ratified under President Clinton, a Democrat. Arlie Russell Hochschild, a sociologist who has studied Trump's success in wooing working-class voters, said the decline of US labor unions over the past 50 years has necessarily meant that unions have less sway in the Democratic party. Rosenthal, the former AFL-CIO official and also a former DNC deputy political director, called on the DNC and Democrats to work far more closely with unions. 'Among working-class voters, support for unions is through the roof, and the Democratic party and the Republican party have no credibility with working-class voters,' he said. 'They don't trust the parties, but they trust the labor movement. It's incumbent on the party to build bridges and put the labor movement front and center in everything it does.' 'From that standpoint,' he continued, the tension that led to Weingarten and Sauders quitting 'is mind-boggling'. Several labor leaders said Martin should have done more to keep prominent and powerful union leaders like Weingarten and Saunders satisfied and on the DNC, even if they backed one of his opponents for DNC chair. Responding to Weingarten and Saunders' concerns, Martin said: 'The DNC and our partners are leading the fight against Trump's budget bill, investing unprecedented dollars into states so Democrats can win elections from the ground up, and reaching out to voters in working-class districts.' Martin told the Guardian that he's trying hard to build bridges with the broader labor movement, and increase its role in the DNC and in the Democrats' efforts. 'Winning back the working class and stopping Trump's budget bill isn't a political goal, it's personal,' he said. 'Labor runs through my family's veins.'
New York Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
5 Things to Know About Zohran Mamdani
When he first declared his candidacy for mayor last fall, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani was a state legislator with a thin résumé who was unknown to most New Yorkers. Months later, he appears poised to become the Democratic Party's nominee for mayor, having bested a far better known and more experienced cast of candidates who had deep relationships with voters across New York City. Mr. Mamdani's campaign focused intensely on the plight of working-class New Yorkers who were struggling with New York City's affordability crisis, most notably the skyrocketing costs of housing and child care. Here is a look at his record and some important things to know about New York City's Democratic mayoral nominee: A Fresh Voice, a Short Track Record Mr. Mamdani beat a four-term incumbent in a close State Assembly primary in 2020. He joined a small group of lawmakers in Albany who were part of the Democratic Socialists of America's New York chapter. His agenda in Albany mirrored his campaign priorities, but of the 20-odd bills Mr. Mamdani has introduced in more than four years in Albany, just three relatively minor items have become law. During the campaign, he talked extensively about a program to begin making city buses free that he had helped start. The pilot program lasted one year and was not renewed. Still, colleagues said his ideas had helped to move the ideological center of the Assembly to the left. In Albany, he was one of the Legislature's youngest members. If elected mayor, he would be, at 34, the city's youngest leader since 1917, when John Purroy Mitchel, a reformer known as the 'Boy Mayor,' was elected and served one term. Mr. Mamdani's youth and fresh vision attracted a broad swath of progressive voters, even as his opponents focused on his relative lack of experience. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
James Carville Says There's 1 'Brilliant Thing About MAGA,' And Dems Should Learn From It
Democratic strategist James Carville criticized his own party Thursday, arguing that Democrats ignored working-class people who voted for President Donald Trump in the last presidential election. In a recent episode of the podcast 'Politics War Room,' Carville told co-host Al Hunt that politics boiled down to winning elections — and while it's tempting for Democrats to tell Trump voters, 'I can't believe how goddamn stupid you were,' the party actually needs to try and persuade them to switch sides. Carville said he has no sympathy for the 'corporate asswipes' who went along with things like Trump's toxic rhetoric about immigrants just because they wanted tax cuts. He does, however, have some sympathy for another group of Trump voters who he believes can help Democrats win elections. 'I have an iota of sympathy for somebody whose life hadn't turned out right... and the brilliant thing about MAGA is it gives you an explanation other than yourself of why your life didn't turn out the way you wanted it,' Carville said. However, the political pundit said, 'Democrats acted like these people didn't exist. They just did.' 'We should say to these people, we kind of understand what you were trying to say, but you were betrayed,' Carville said, later arguing that the best way to approach these Trump voters is to say, 'We betrayed you somewhat. We now have learned our lesson.' The segment starts around the 1:18:00 mark below. James Carville Names 1 Trump Train Democrats 'Need To Jump On' And 'Never Get Off Of' James Carville Suggests He Would Endorse This Democrat In 2028 Race If They Nab Nomination James Carville Slams Bill Maher As 'Supremely Naive Man' Over Trump Meeting
