Who are 'working people'?
The government has promised not to raise taxes for this group but is struggling to define who they are

Britain's working people "know exactly who they are", Keir Starmer has said as he promised to "protect their payslips" in tomorrow's Budget.
But "with the big day looming, it still isn't clear" what the term "working people" actually means, said the BBC. Even some government ministers have struggled to clarify the definition of a concept that touches on politically charged notions of identity.
What did the commentators say?
The phrase "working people" has been "bandied around a lot" during the run-up to the Budget. And Labour mentioned it "21 times in their manifesto", said Sky News, so "you'd think they would have a pretty concrete idea" of what it means.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But Labour's definition is a "work in progress", said The Guardian. When ministers have been asked "inevitable questions" about what they would call a "working person", there have been "mixed results".
Somewhere among their "slightly salad-like cascade of words" there are "two interlocking definitions". The first is "economic and relatively precise": as "more or less defined" by No. 10, a working person is "someone whose income is reliant on a regular wage", as opposed to someone who can "rely on money from unearned wealth", such as shares or "rental income".
Britain "once had an obsession with social class", said Patrick O'Flynn in The Telegraph, but in Starmer's worldview you can be a "senior Whitehall mandarin" with a "gold-plated pension and a generous salary" and still be considered one of the working people he pledged to protect. If you are a buy-to-let landlord "running around" half a dozen rental properties "fixing dents in front doors and leaky taps, then forget it".
The other definition of working people is "political and notably more woolly", said The Guardian. It acts as an "all-encompassing synonym for the sort of diligent, taxpaying, family-raising voters" to whom almost all political parties "mentally pitch their ideas".
"If you're a Tory," said Sam Leith in The Spectator, "non-working" people mostly means "skivers, spongers, quangocrats and undeserving welfare recipients", but if you're "Trad Labour", it's "members of the rent-seeking capitalist boss class". If you're Starmer, it's "a bit of both" depending on "who you are hoping to appeal to".
Indeed, Labour's "flatfooted expression" opened up everyone's "secret feelings" about where our fellow citizens sit on a "private spectrum of esteem", stretching all the way from "critical-care nursing" to "hedge-funding", said Libby Purves in The Times.
What the government "really meant", said the Financial Times' Stephen Bush, was "we won't touch the headline rates of income tax and national insurance, but we will find any number of other ways to increase the amount of money going into the public services".
The term "working people" really "means absolutely nothing", but the debate does reveal one thing: Labour "is not clear in its own mind who 'its people' are".
What next?
Tomorrow's Budget will provide some clarity as to who the government regards as working people. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is "set to increase taxes significantly", City A.M. said.
Depending on "who the government class as working people", it could "open the door for potential hikes" to capital gains tax, national insurance for employers, and "even potentially inheritance tax", said Sky News. But "we will not really know" until Reeves opens that red box tomorrow.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
How does the EPA plan to invalidate a core scientific finding?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Administrator Lee Zeldin says he's 'driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion.' But is his plan to undermine a key Obama-era greenhouse gas emissions policy scientifically sound — or politically feasible?
-
China is building the world's biggest hydropower dam. Is it a 'water bomb' aimed at India?
Today's Big Question River is a 'lifeline for millions' across Asia
-
The 'secret' to 'avoiding a monthly car payment'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Can Gaza aid drops work?
Today's Big Question UN's Palestinian refugee agency calls plan a 'distraction and smokescreen' as pressure mounts on Israel to agree ceasefire and fully open land crossings
-
Is Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' cancellation an omen of something worse?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION CBS said its decision to end the talk show was strictly business. But the timing and nature of the announcement has some observers wondering if there's more at play behind the scenes.
-
Are we facing a summer of riots?
Today's Big Question Anti-immigrant unrest in Essex has sparked fears of a summer of disorder
-
Who stands to gain – and lose – from 16-year-old voters?
Today's Big Question Many assume Labour will benefit but move could 'backfire' if Greens, a new hard-left party or Reform continue to pick up momentum
-
'A recipe for higher costs and lower living standards'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day