Conservative politician Michael Gove has asserted that Andy Burnham's Labour party promotes a message of "knowing your place" rather than fostering aspiration among the working class. Gove contends that Labour's policies on education and home ownership, particularly their focus on council housing and a perceived skepticism towards academic rigor, reflect a "soft bigotry of low expectations."
Gove draws a contrast between contemporary Labour figures and historical leaders like William Gladstone, whom he cites as an example of a progressive who "liberated working people" through policies such as free education, expanded voting rights, and trade union recognition. Gladstone, Gove notes, delivered complex orations on economic and foreign policy to audiences of laborers and miners, demonstrating a profound faith in their capacity for understanding and ambition.
In contrast, Gove critiques Burnham's communication style, pointing to a recent TikTok video discussing snack preferences as a sign of a diminished ambition and a focus on superficial relatability over substantive policy. He argues that Burnham's agenda seeks to reverse what he terms "neoliberalism" but which Gove views as a period of expanded opportunity, particularly highlighting the expansion of home ownership under Margaret Thatcher. Gove criticizes Burnham's apparent preference for building more council houses over facilitating wider access to property ownership, suggesting this limits working-class advancement.
The education system, Gove argues, has seen significant cross-party progress over decades, with reforms leading to greater school autonomy, improved curricula, regular testing, and rigorous inspections. He credits figures like Ken Baker and Tony Blair for establishing academies and free schools, which he states have improved outcomes, especially for disadvantaged students. Gove cites examples of schools like Michaela in Wembley Park and Mercia Academy in Sheffield, where students from challenging backgrounds achieve high GCSE results and gain entry to top universities.
Gove expresses concern that Labour's Education Secretary, Lucy Powell, intends to "turn back the clock" by advocating for more municipal control over education and criticizing assessment methods like spelling, punctuation, and grammar tests. He interprets this as a signal to working-class children that they should not aspire to academic excellence, a stance he finds hypocritical given Burnham's own educational background and Powell's past experiences at Oxford.
Gove further contends that Burnham and Powell subtly reject aspirational symbols, citing Burnham's casual T-shirt attire, even in formal settings, as a deliberate eschewal of "upward mobility." He acknowledges the importance of pride in working-class traditions but insists that this should be coupled with a value for aspiration, improvement, and ambition.
Drawing on historical accounts of working-class intellectual life, Gove suggests that a tradition of self-improvement and engagement with learning has long been a hallmark of working-class communities. He calls for a shift in Labour's approach, urging a focus on higher standards, expectations of excellence, and the encouragement of ambition to learn, earn, and own, rather than what he terms the "soft bigotry of low expectations."