# Labour’s ‘blunt’ drive to treat social class discrimination like racism and sexism is a ‘mistake’ says head of scrapped social mobility body

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/labours-blunt-drive-to-treat-social-class-discrimination-like-racism-and-sexism-is-a-mistake-says-head-of-scrapped-social-mobility-body/
- Published: 2026-09-13T10:06:29+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-13T10:18:10+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16127567/Labour-social-class-discrimination-racism-sexism-mistake.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Geopolitics, Government, Politics, World

## Key points

- SMC chairman calls Labour's class-discrimination plan a "mistake"
- New Whitehall unit to replace scrapped Social Mobility Commission
- Plan includes legal duty on public bodies over class inequality

## Summary

The chairman of the Social Mobility Commission, Alun Francis, has criticised Labour's plan to treat class discrimination on a par with racism and sexism, calling the approach a "mistake" as the body he leads is scrapped. Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson last week announced a new dedicated unit to tackle class inequality, to sit within the Office for Equality and Opportunity alongside existing units on race, gender, LGBT and disability rights, with the Social Mobility Commission being closed as a result. Francis's intervention matters because it comes from the head of the very body being wound up, raising questions about the design and oversight of its replacement.

Francis told BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour that class was too poorly defined and too "blunt" a concept to underpin targeted policy interventions, questioning whether occupation, income or culture should be used to measure it, and also flagged a lack of independent scrutiny of the new unit. The Government's plans include imposing a legally binding "socio-economic duty" on public bodies, requiring them to consider the impact of decisions on transport, services and budgets for lower-income families, a measure long sought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and a Labour manifesto pledge. The new unit is expected to focus particularly on outcomes for white working-class people, while the Social Mobility Commission, established in 2010, is being closed after ministers said it had produced no policy-changing work in a decade; the Conservatives' Joy Morrissey has separately criticised the plan as adding "more bureaucracy".

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.