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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2024
Introduction
The Conservative government inherited the Coalition government's response to the private sector financial crisis of 2007 to 2008, as fiscal stimulus approaches to solving the crisis raised the budget deficit to 11.6 per cent in 2010 (Office for National Statistics – ONS, 2010). Over half of the cuts to government expenditure were to social security and local government – despite this sector making up only 27 per cent of total government expenditure – resulting in disabled people (8 per cent of the population) bearing 29 per cent of the costs of the cuts (Duffy, 2013). It is estimated that the 21 per cent of the female population living in poverty during that time bore the burden of 39 per cent of the spending cuts, and as 20 per cent of their income came from social security and tax benefits (compared to 10 per cent of men's income), £22 billion of the £26 billion cuts were borne by women (Hills, 2015). Black and Asian households in the lowest fifth of incomes experienced the largest drop in living standards due to austerity – around 20 per cent (Women's Budget Group and Runnymede Trust, 2017). The majority Conservative administration therefore inherited a sharply divided society where existing inequalities had widened considerably due to Coalition policies.
This chapter examines the Conservatives’ record, focusing on social divisions of race, gender and disability. It assesses how these policies contributed to the unequal outcomes suffered by these groups under COVID-19 and discusses what can be learned to ameliorate inequality in a post-COVID-19 social policy landscape.
Race
Concerned about the persistent nature of racial inequality and associated social costs (Cabinet Office, 2017), in 2020 then Prime Minister Boris Johnson commissioned the Sewell report, which published in March 2021 (Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, 2021). Using data collected by the Cabinet Office's Race and Disparity Unit, it drew together disparate strands of data on ethnicity-based inequalities across different issues and sectors.
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