Ministers say it’s their ‘moral duty’ to encourage sick and disabled people to work. But is this ‘morality’ driven by genuine compassion or cost-cutting?
- Associate Professor in Journalism Studies, University of Stirling
Labour has vowed to end divisive discourse demonising out-of-work people as ‘scroungers’ - but how does this fit with its tough warnings about people who don’t ‘engage’?
The extreme levels of poverty endured by economically inactive people (as highlighted in the government’s own data) are a direct result of deliberate political choices to continually erode benefits.
Labour strategists seem determined to cast Starmer as the sensible ‘adult in the room’, but in order to win lost areas he needs to be much more radical than that.
Contact James for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Dundee
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined



