White working class boys have the worst educational outcomes in England, but distorting the labour market in their favour is not the answer, writes Joseph Dinnage

Rights for whites. That’s what Bridget Phillipson thinks, at least. 

The minister for women and equalities is expected this week to put social class on a par with race, sex and disability in a bid to improve the outcomes of Britain’s white working classes. A dedicated unit to tackle class inequality will be established within the Office for Equality and Opportunity, where it will sit alongside similar teams covering gender, sexuality and disability.

Educational outcomes by class and ethnicity

The diversity lobby will cry racism, but in fairness to Phillipson, whitey has had it rough in Britain for some time. According to the independent inquiry into white working-class educational outcomes, white British pupils on free school meals (FSM) (who make up over half of all FSM students) experience the poorest educational outcomes of any major ethnic group in England. In 2024-25, only 36 per cent achieved a Grade 4 or above in English and Maths GCSE, compared with 72 per cent of non-FSM pupils. 

Educational underperformance begets professional difficulties. The Sutton Trust has found that white British FSM men attained 40 per cent below the average student and earned 15 per cent less, and their female peers attained 30 per cent below the average but earned 41 per cent less.

White people make up around 83 per cent of the population of the United Kingdom, and of that number, almost half consider themselves to be working class. Phillipson is right to recognise a problem in such a large portion of our population underperforming on key educational and professional indicators. But I’m not convinced she nor her crack squad of civil servants are the people to fix it.

The problem with enforced ‘equality’

Earlier this year, we at the Prosperity Institute released a paper on the Equality Act – legislation that is emblematic of the ‘progressive’ approach to improving the lot of those who have fallen behind. The Act transformed our understanding of equality, representing a legal shift from negative prohibitions against discrimination to the creation of a positive legal obligation to enforce ‘equality’. The Act has, to quote Lord Sewell’s foreword, “built a monster” where certain groups – based on their alleged historic victimhood – have been afforded opportunities where others have not, most obviously when it comes to ethnicity. Sewell’s groundbreaking 2021 Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities found that, rather than discrimination, class, geography and family stability are the real drivers of unequal outcomes in Britain, with white working-class boys the worst off.

Is Phillipson cottoning on to this line of thinking? It seems unlikely, since class has simply been lumped in alongside Labour’s other ‘equality’ projects. Inviting the white working class to perform in the Olympics of victimhood will do neither them nor the rest of Britain any good.

The best way the government can empower poor white people or anyone else is not by distorting the labour market in favour of certain ethnic blocs, but by getting out of their way.

White working class boys need job opportunities

If Labour were truly concerned about the prosperity of the white working class, they would look at why businesses have stopped hiring. They would soon find that it is not because of any institutional bigotry, but due to their own Employment Rights Act and tax rises that have made it too expensive to consider hiring new staff. The Centre for Policy Studies has calculated that between 2024 and 2026, it has become £3,414 more expensive to employ a worker on the minimum wage.

Black, white or purple, no one is going to get on without sustained economic growth and a labour market that allows businesses to hire freely. Condescending state initiatives will not change that, and as we’ve seen with the Equality Act, only serves to deepen societal discord as different groups compete for a piece of the action. 

Allowing white working class boys to get jobs of their own on their own merit and achieve real financial freedom is a far better way of increasing opportunity and agency than a top-down government scheme. Will the woman who as education secretary imposed class war on private schools recognise this? I somehow doubt it.

Joseph Dinnage is senior press officer at the Prosperity Institute