The coalition needs a clear message for Middle England

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics

The coalition has a problem communicating with the middle classes. As 20 October and the spending review approaches, the government’s message to other groups in society is easy to understand. The vulnerable will be protected from the cuts. Low earners will be allowed to keep more of the money that they make. But what about Middle England? It is much harder to discern what the coalition wants to say to them.

Politically, this is a dangerous vacuum. It is easy to see why anxious bourgeois voters — and there are many of them — might think that the coalition is going to attempt to balance the budget by lumping an unbearable fiscal burden on their backs.

Sensing weakness, Labour’s leadership contenders have already started talking about how the government is trying to take away the middle-class bits of the welfare state. They point to how child tax credits have been taken away from those on more than £30,000 a year and how the winter fuel allowance is going to be restricted. Whichever Miliband becomes leader, the idea that the coalition is short-changing the middle classes will be a major part of Labour’s critique of the government. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, Labour aims to emerge as the protector of the middle classes from the coalition cutters.

David Cameron has already made clear his vision of the welfare state. In Manchester last month, he said that the government must ensure that state-funded initiatives benefit ‘the people who need help the most’. He bemoaned how ‘the sharp-elbowed middle classes — like my wife and me — get in there and get all the services’. Never mind Cameron’s description of himself as middle-class — a quote that prompts wry chuckles from his colleagues — the remark underlined the Prime Minister’s view that the welfare state should not provide extras for the middle classes.