Why Keir Starmer should appoint a Secretary of State for Fairness - Will Snell

And they’re right – today’s Britain is an incredibly unfair country, and is set to become even more unfair over the next five years. Consider some of the statistics that we highlighted in our report earlier this week, The Canaries: How unfair inequality is poisoning Britain.

Today, the average person in the South-East of England is £195,400 wealthier than their counterpart in the North of England; this gap is projected to increase to £229,000 by 2029. Today, 30 per cent of children live in relative poverty; this is projected to increase to 33 per cent by 2028. Today, 1.8 million children live in overcrowded housing; this is projected to increase to two million children by 2030.

The dashboard is flashing red. And this isn’t just unfair – it’s also bad for our economy, society and democracy, to say nothing of our prospects for achieving net zero. For example, there’s plenty of evidence that poverty and inequality undermine economic growth by reducing social mobility, wasting people’s talent and squeezing the supply of skilled labour and innovation that is needed to increase productivity. Poverty and inequality also have terrible impacts on our health.

In fact, unless the new government takes radical action to reduce inequalities in the UK, it’s going to be more or less impossible for them to achieve their five ‘missions’ on growth, the NHS, opportunity, crime and net zero. And, worse still, there’s a real risk that failure to act on inequalities will open the door for a far-right victory at the 2029 general election.

A good first step would be for the Prime Minister to show that he and his government are on the side of ordinary Britons by appointing a Secretary of State for Fairness.

Keir Starmer has correctly identified a deep-seated public cynicism about politicians and politics. Arguably the biggest challenge facing this new government is to convince the country that politics can overcome some of the deep-seated problems that we face.

A Secretary of State for Fairness could help to restore public faith in politics, by making sure that the new government is taking coordinated action to level the playing field for ordinary Britons on issues from the cost of living to climate change, and that fairness is hardwired into the policies whose success or failure will determine the outcome of the 2029 general election.

Labour has already said that it will create a new dedicated Cabinet position of Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, rather than adding this onto another role (the previous Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, was also the Business Secretary).

In a report that we’re publishing in the coming days, Deepening the Opportunity Mission, we argue that this upgraded Cabinet position should focus on all aspects of fairness, equality and opportunity.

The Secretary of State for Fairness should have lead responsibility for delivering a new cross-Government, cross-mission equality strategy. This should cover equalities based on race, gender, age, disability and sexual identity – but should also cover socio-economic inequalities, and inequalities between different regions of the UK.

Other Cabinet ministers and departments should continue to lead on their own areas of responsibility – so levelling up should stay within the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, for example – but the Secretary of State for Fairness would have the broad remit that allowed for a properly joined-up approach.

It would be their responsibility to bang heads together to make sure that crucial fairness concerns are not sidelined by other priorities.

Net zero is a good example. A Secretary of State for Fairness could ensure that all net zero initiatives pass a ‘fairness test’ so that environmental policies are not designed or implemented in ways that unfairly disadvantage those with the least.

Growth is another area where the Secretary of State for Fairness could play a key role. The Resolution Foundation forecasts that most growth over the next 15 years will benefit people on middle and high incomes (who mostly live in the South East), so there’s an urgent need to direct more of the proceeds of growth to those on lower incomes and in poorer parts of the country, as well as taking bolder action to reduce the cost of living.

Keir Starmer has a mandate from the British people for taking bold action. It’s crucial that he acts on it. Appointing a Secretary of State for Fairness would be a great start.

Will Snell is the chief executive of the Fairness Foundation.