Electoral appeals to fairness

A brief analysis of how politicians and political parties have used (and abused) the idea of fairness during the election campaign so far

Last year we published Fairness in the House, an analysis of mentions of fairness in UK parliaments over the last 25 years, which showed that the idea of fairness is shared by all political parties, but is conceptualised in very different ways:

• Different parties talk about fairness in relation to different groups. Politicians on the right talk about fairness in relation to very clearly defined groups, such as taxpayers and hard-working families (with other groups in society implicitly outside this ‘bargain’). Left-wing politicians are less precise about which groups are ‘entitled’ to fairness. Fairness can be used to divide, or to unite.
• A range of aligned and competing values are cited alongside fairness. Left-wing politicians frequently refer to fairness and equality, justice and opportunity. Right-wing politicians are more likely to mention transparency alongside fairness, as well as freedom and responsibility. Politicians of all parties also mention equity and balance alongside fairness. This relates to which ‘version’ of fairness is given primacy - fair process, fair opportunities or fair outcomes.

How has this dynamic played out so far during the general election campaign (including in the manifestos), and what does this tell us about the political and media narrative around fairness in the UK today? Read on to find out.

Fairness as divider or unifier

Fairness can be used to bring people together, for example through appeals to a shared sense of justice and due process. But it can also be used to set different groups against each other, by making a judgement about who is ‘entitled’ to fairness.

Sometimes this is a deliberate, explicit tactic; for example, the Conservative manifestodescribes how they “introduced the household benefit cap and the two-child limit to make the system fairer to the taxpayers who pay for it and ensure benefits are always a safety net, not a lifestyle choice.” People on benefits are the clear ‘out group’ here.

Sometimes this approach is less obvious, and perhaps also less intentional. There are dozens of references in the Labour manifesto to “working people”. Who is left out of this implicit social contract? Is it those who are too wealthy to need to work? Or those who cannot - whether due to illness, disability, caring commitments, or a simple inability to find work?

Immigration and other international issues sometimes do both, because a call for national unity can be built around an implicit or (more often) explicit dividing line between Britons and foreigners. One example is the Prime Minister’s response to a question on immigration at last week’s special edition of Question Time: "Illegal immigration is wrong. When people jump the queue and come to our country illegally, it undermines the notion, the sense of fairness that our entire country is built on. And of course, it puts pressure on public services and it causes security issues. But fundamentally, it's wrong and it's unfair. That's why I want to stop it."

Fair process, opportunities or outcomes

Fairness can also be conceptualised, and presented, in quite different ways (we argue in The Fair Necessities that fairness is about all of these them).

First is fair process. This pops up everywhere, but particularly on the right (sometimes described in other ways, such as a ‘level playing field’. One example is Reform’s manifesto (contract), which proposes to “abolish Business Rates for high street based SMEs” and “offset this with Online Delivery Tax at 4% for large, multinational enterprises to create a fairer playing field for high streets.” Plaid Cymru have also talked about fair process in the context of rebuilding trust, honesty and fairness in politics; their leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has called for a fairer tax system to stop people like Mr Sunak from paying less on investments than workers do on their "hard graft."

Of course, there has been an egregious example of the absence of fair process in recent days, in the form of the election betting scandal that is engulfing the Conservative Party at the moment. As Michael Gove pointed out over the weekend, as with partygate, the perception (reality?) of “one rule for them and one rule for us” is what is most damaging, not only to the Tories’ electoral prospects but also to what remains of public trust and faith in politics and politicians more widely.

Next, fair opportunities. This perennial favourite of politicians has not been heard as much during this campaign as in others over recent years, but it’s very much part of Labour’s manifesto in that the opportunity mission is one of their five missions for government. While the idea of ‘fair opportunities’ has often been cited without any serious attempt to engage with the implications, Labour’s document does acknowledge the need to tackle barriers to opportunity outside the classroom, although it’s not clear at present that their plans in this area are equal to the scale of the challenge. We'll be launching a report on this topic on 9 July, ‘Deepening the Opportunity Mission’ - sign up for our launch webinar.

Then there’s fair outcomes. The Green Party manifesto is perhaps the most obvious example of this, with a focus on reducing inequality (in tandem with combatting the climate and nature emergency) by creating a “fairer, greener country” in which “we are all safer, happier and more fulfilled”.

Some calls to fairness arguably straddle all of the above categories. A good example is the Liberal Democrats’ focus on a fair deal, which underpins their entire manifesto. The document sets out said deal in relation to the economy, public services, the environment, the international order and democracy. For the Scottish National Party, Scottish independence is unsurprisingly front and centre, but is tied to fairness (in general terms), with a commitment to “deliver independence to strengthen our economy, tackle the cost of living, and bring about a fairer country”.

Whoever wins power on 4 July, we believe that we’re on a negative trajectory in terms of fairness in Britain, and that the next government needs to take urgent action to change course. On Monday 1 July, we’ll be publishing a report, ‘The Canaries’, that sets out what the evidence tells us about how much more unfair Britain could become over the next five years, why this matters, and what we can do about it, with a launch webinar on Zoom at 1pm.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tonight: Paul Collier, 6.30pm at Bush House, Central London

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Monday 1 July: The Canaries launch, 1pm on Zoom

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Tuesday 9 July: Deepening the Opportunity Mission launch, 1pm on Zoom

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