Breaking Barriers: Bringing Working-Class Voices into Politics
A few weekends ago, I went back to the ex-mining town in West Yorkshire where I grew up. I was there to help my mum – now a local councillor I helped to elect – deliver leaflets and knock on doors. As we campaigned, we discussed how, in working-class communities like this, barriers continue to keep people out of politics, with little effort being made to dismantle them. That conversation led me to my current project: making politics more accessible to those too often shut out, and helping to elect representatives who truly reflect their communities.
This project is personal to me because I’ve experienced firsthand the barriers working-class people face in spaces not built for us. My mum had me at 18, raised me on her own, and worked a minimum-wage job. In our community, going to university wasn’t the norm – most people left school and went straight into work. I was the first in my family to attend, and even that felt like a gamble rather than a natural step.
Ex-mining towns like the one I grew up in still bear the scars of deindustrialisation: limited jobs, low pay, poor health outcomes, weak transport links, and chronic underinvestment. The result is a cycle of deprivation and disconnection from national politics. Growing up, no one ever knocked on our door or handed us a leaflet – politics felt distant, irrelevant, almost imaginary. In places like this, becoming a Member of Parliament wasn’t just unlikely – it felt unimaginable. That is exactly what I am determined to change.
Politicians have long promised working-class communities the world – and delivered little. In 2019, the Conservatives put regional inequality centre stage – vowing to ‘level up’ the country and make the ‘most of Brexit.’ Six years on, those words ring hollow. A 2024 BBC survey found that 73% of people in former mining towns and villages felt they had seen little or no progress, making it clear that ‘levelling up’ was a slogan to win votes, not a plan to change lives.
But Labour, now over a year into power, shows little sign of breaking the cycle. Their welfare stance risks hitting the poorest hardest, and their silence on struggling regions – like seaside towns – speaks volumes. Labour, too, has fallen into the same trap: taking working-class voters for granted, only to look away once in office.
I grew up in a town where too many people were written off before they had the chance to prove themselves. I saw friends held back, opportunities limited, and potential wasted – not because people lacked talent or ambition, but because the odds were stacked against them. Those experiences shaped me. They made me believe it doesn’t have to be this way. With the right vision, we can build a fairer society where opportunity is shared more equally, and towns like the one I grew up in are no longer left behind.
But belief alone is not enough – it’s time to act. We cannot stand by while Labour and the Conservatives claim to champion working-class communities and expand opportunities, yet deliver little real change. And we cannot allow the space they have left behind to be filled by half-measures, empty promises, or politics driven by fear and division.
It’s on us to offer something better – a vision that is bold, hopeful, and rooted in fairness, compassion, and opportunity. We must present real solutions, not slogans, and we must keep pressing until Westminster truly serves all of us, not just the privileged few.
To turn belief into action, I launched a Working-Class Candidates Taskforce, to find, support, and elect people from backgrounds too often shut out of politics. Since sharing my project just weeks ago, I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people who’ve reached out. The appetite for change is clear. Now it’s time to deliver – to break down barriers, elevate new voices, and prove that politics can work for everyone, not just the privileged few. I’m determined to make sure we do, and I encourage everyone who believes in a fairer, more inclusive politics to join me in making it happen.
