Bridget Phillipson

And when I read today, I think for the first time, although you'll probably drop me a little note and say, "Uh, actually, James, this isn't the first time you've had this thought.

You had it on the seventeenth of June 2017." I read this morning about Bridget Phillipson Setting up a class unit and ditching social mobility advisors.

So a rejig, if you like, of the Social Mobility Commission.

That is being abolished.

That's- Utter horse manure.

But it's quite a popular position to hold at the moment.

But even there, I don't-- what does it actually mean? Because I've got a very sneaking suspicion, and I don't like it, that Bridget Phillipson doesn't really know either, and, and that this is genuinely opportunistic politics.

What are you gonna do? We're gonna help the working class.

We're the class unit.

I wonder, will they have uniforms? Uh, Bridget Phillipson, the Equalities Minister, says the move will bring the government's efforts to tackle disadvantage, uh, in-house.

Yes, ridiculous.

Here's Labour MP Rosie Whiting on Politics Live.

The biggest barrier to your progress at school, uh, professionally, in, in health, is how wealthy your household was.

So we need to deal with that.

I think Bridget Phillipson, that is, when she was asked about that-

Yeah

No league tables, no SATs, no academies, no free schools, and basically play-based learning.

And I tell you, Liam, my fear, my real fear now is with this stupid government and the dreadful Lucy Powell succeeding the really dreadful Bridget Phillipson as education secretary, is Lucy Powell is talking about, "Oh, children should do what they can do, what they know." It's literally narrowing, you know, let's not give them anything difficult or demanding 'cause they're white working class thickos and they can't be exposed to anything-

The tyranny of low expectations.

Another Labor politician wanting to create another client voter by condemning that person to a life on benefits.

It's absolutely outrageous.

And by the way, you talk about Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson, I recently interviewed Catherine Bermansingh on my own When the Facts Change You- YouTube channel, [laughs] and she said she famously clashed with Bridget Phillipson.

She said [laughs] Lucy Powell's even worse.

Yes, exactly.

Now, that might've been made back in 1966, but social class still appears to be a big issue for the government right now in 2026.

Today, the Equalities Minister, Bridget Phillipson, has announced she's setting up what's been described as the first dedicated class unit with a mission to improve life chances for working-class people and put social mobility work into the heart of government.

So I asked Bridget Phillipson, what's the point of this new unit?

So working-class identity is a really important part of, of our society, but we don't talk enough about class.

In the department I run, we've got work on, on women's equality, on race equality, on disability, on LGBT rights.

Yeah.

We should just say for the record that if you ever ask a minister or Andy Burnham himself, "Do you intend to have an election anytime soon?" He will say no, and ministers will say, in fact, Bridget Phillipson told this podcast just a week or so ago that they intend to go the full distance until 2029.

But they always say that.

But they always say that, and then they change their minds.