I wonder whether the greater emphasis on class is partially just a case of political incentives. As you note, the Blair government did some important redistributive work, but they never made a song-and-dance about it, because their swing voters were in the middle classes and they didn't want to scare the horses. They often championed the minimum wage precisely because that was something that middle-class people didn't have to pay for.
However, Britain's political landscape has changed since those days. In particular (white) working-class voters are very much more in-play than they used to be. I remember being struck by a comment from Tim Montgomerie during the 2019 election results: "for decades British elections have been focused on the middle class, but this election has been about working-class voters, and that's a good competition for politics to have." He was right on that; where he went wrong was in thinking that the Tories, stuffed with vested interests as they are, could do this with any degree of durability.
I wonder whether the greater emphasis on class is partially just a case of political incentives. As you note, the Blair government did some important redistributive work, but they never made a song-and-dance about it, because their swing voters were in the middle classes and they didn't want to scare the horses. They often championed the minimum wage precisely because that was something that middle-class people didn't have to pay for.
However, Britain's political landscape has changed since those days. In particular (white) working-class voters are very much more in-play than they used to be. I remember being struck by a comment from Tim Montgomerie during the 2019 election results: "for decades British elections have been focused on the middle class, but this election has been about working-class voters, and that's a good competition for politics to have." He was right on that; where he went wrong was in thinking that the Tories, stuffed with vested interests as they are, could do this with any degree of durability.