Why Liz Truss’s UK workers comments are bad policy followed by even worse politics

It’s a bit of a cheek to say the problem lies with the worker, writes Salma Shah

Truss during a hustings event in Darlington, County Durham (PA)

British workers might take umbrage with Liz Truss’s view that we need “more graft”. After years of stagnant wages, and the promise of being levelled up never materialising, it’s a bit of a cheek to say the problem lies with the worker.

A recording of Truss, while chief secretary to the Treasury, has emerged. In it she compares the UK worker unfavourably against foreign rivals, suggesting that we lacked the “skill and application of others”. In an unfortunate echo of her previous faux pas where a book she co-authored described Brits as idlers, this is becoming a bit of a comms problem.

Despite being a British Asian, I don’t have the worth ethic of my counterparts on the subcontinent. And nor do I want to. Our motivations and attitudes are not the same, our relative positions in the world economy do not compare. My family left India a generation ago to escape the grinding poverty and the entrenched privilege that meant they were never getting a leg up on the social mobility ladder, so the comparison is an irrelevant stereotype.

To be fair to Truss, the core thesis is not wrong. We do face a productivity challenge in this country, we don’t get out what we put in. But to dumb it down and make it an issue of individual attitudes and work culture absolves the government of one of its key responsibilities, to upskill the workforce and provide the infrastructure to thrive and welcome new investment. That is, I assume, what levelling up was meant to do?

Not long ago we were promised a new, high-wage, economy. That needs real investment in skills and education, a plan for which has yet to be presented. Good jobs need highly trained efficient workers and whilst there have been several attempts to harness our human potential through policies like the apprenticeship levy and an explosion of private providers of vocational training, real commercial opportunities need to exist in order for the productivity gap to be closed.

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Isn’t this how the Conservatives were going to retain the red wall, those Labour heartlands who may now be hearing themselves described as work-shy? This is bad policy followed by even worse politics.

We are often told about all these jobs that “British” people won’t do and it’s a concern that food is rotting in fields because we don’t have enough people to pick fruit. But, is it as simple as British workers won’t do it? Or might it be that the rural economy can’t support seasonal agricultural workers because of high property prices and better opportunities for Brits elsewhere? Might it also be an issue that the end of freedom of movement of workers has exacerbated these issues in the short term? We must acknowledge the changes that will bring to our labour market and adapt not moan.

We have an opportunity to set out a real plan for growth. And it begins with investing in the population. Like the rest of the world we are still struggling with the effects of the pandemic, with implications for the future of work. Our attitudes and behaviours are changing, and it’s a challenge the business world is grappling with daily.

If we’re truly going to move forward and become a truly modern economy we have to stop with the nonsense about British workers.