Underdogs: The Truth About Britain's White Working Class

by Joel Budd

A Financial Times Summer Read 2025
A BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week'

'Essential reading' - Telegraph
'Not just well timed but admirably powerful' - The Guardian
'A calm, sensitive, soothingly sociological book' - The Sunday Times
'Will change how you see Britain' - Robert Ford, author of Brexitland
________

Underdogs is a surprising journey into the heart of the misunderstood white working class. And it might just change how you see Britain.

While Brexit helped to turn the white working class into a social and political force, in its aftermath one-third of the population has been reduced to a caricature. Portrayed as angry and hostile to change, as xenophobic, even racist, it’s a tired narrative favoured by both politicians and the press.

The truth is far more compelling.

In Underdogs, Economist journalist Joel Budd takes us across the UK, from the shores of Teesside to the Isle of Wight, from the Valleys of South Wales to the fields of Lincolnshire, talking with a diverse group of people about their jobs, their families and neighbourhoods, their struggles and hopes.

Offering an eye-opening corrective to the familiar stereotype, Budd discovers the white working class are not just grumbling about the transformation of Britain. With warmth and determination, they are pushing the country forward.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, British Literature, Class

328 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2025

Reviews

[Sadie E · Rating 1 out of 5]

I genuinely came away from this wondering if the author’s end goal was just to incite a race war. That sounds dramatic, but read this and tell me it doesn’t spend 300 pages nudging you toward “us vs them” and calling it analysis.

This is a book about BRITAIN’S working class. Big, sweeping, capital-B Britain. And yet Scotland has been… what, misplaced? You don’t get to claim the whole island and then just forget chunks of it exist.

Then there’s the way this book treats “the working class” like a sacred, tragic-but-noble monolith. Like they're the salt of the earth, dignified in the face of adversity. Cue swelling violin music. Except, no. I grew up poor. Not the romanticised version. I mean poor-poor, where moving up to working class was an aspiration for me. I'm talking sharing my meals with the pets. Permanently malnourished. Wearing the same school clothes for 6 years until they gave up. One 5 minute shower a week because hot water was a luxury. So forgive me if I don’t light a candle for this polished, museum-display version of struggle.

The constant insistence that this entire group's made up of wonderful, downtrodden, shirt-off-their-back saints is exhausting. Humanity is a spectrum. Some people are great. Some people are awful. That applies across every class. This book acts like nuance personally insulted it.

If you’re getting snobby vibes from this review, you’re... probably not wrong. I guess I’m solidly upper-middle class now, and yes, every situation's different. Some people are stuck. Some people are dealing with health issues, lack of education, no support systems, so getting out isn’t simple. But it’s disingenuous to paint the entire working class as a bunch of helpless crybabies who can’t or won’t change. For a book that’s trying so hard to make a specific group look resilient and admirable, it’s doing a terrible job of it.

This feels like it was written for people who haven’t been a member of this "noble" demographic. If you’ve spent your life comfortably lower-middle class or above, you might find this “eye-opening.” A little sociological safari through struggle with a neat narrative bow on top. If you’re actually from anything resembling the world it’s describing, it reads less like insight and more like a weird peanut gallery. In short: a colossal waste of time.

And omg the whiteness. This book is WHITE 😎 Blindingly so. Someone fetch the SPF50. Where's everyone else? Because the working class isn't a monoculture, despite the author’s best efforts to pretend otherwise. And when it does acknowledge minority ethnic groups, we get absolute gems like:

“The sentiment is envy... white people feel that members of minority ethnic groups are more serious about education, more committed to their families, more devoted to civic action and in general more determined.”

Ah, right. So that’s the lens. That's why this book is "the truth about Britain's white working class" and the rest of the working class gets shuffled offstage, because they don’t fit the “woe is me” narrative. And then we’re told these groups are “competitors for resources – especially social housing – that they think should go to them,” and suddenly the whole thing starts to feel less like analysis and more like… I don’t know, a rant from your racist uncle?

At multiple points it basically boils down to: look at minority communities doing well… how dare they... something must be rigged against white people. In 2026. I cannot believe I’m typing that sentence with a straight face.

To summarise this book: let’s pit ethnic groups against each other, dress it up as social commentary, and call it a day.

It’s also just page after page of moaning. The most aggressively British flavour of it too: nostalgic, self-pitying, obsessed with a past where things were “better." The whole outlook feels anchored in this nostalgia for when white identity held more cultural power, and while the book's busy reminiscing, it’s also resenting the fact that other groups have had the audacity to move forward.

The author drones on about “white working class underachievement” like it’s some grand injustice that other groups are… doing better? Or at least not doing worse? And look, I’m not here to speak for anyone, but it doesn’t take a sociologist to guess that being looked down on your whole life because of your background or ethnicity might be a pretty strong motivator. Meanwhile, if your entire identity's built around grievance and nostalgia, maybe, just maybe, that doesn’t produce stellar outcomes either.

We also take a bizarre detour into car modification culture, because apparently only council estate dwellers are out here remapping engines and slapping questionable spoilers on hatchbacks as self-expression? Sir. A dodgy, souped-up Corsa with tragic decals is practically a national symbol at this point. That’s not class-specific, that’s just Britain being Britain.

I found the entire thing insulting. Not provocative or challenging in a meaningful way, just reductive and repetitive, and strangely self-congratulatory about it. It tries so hard to paint a sympathetic portrait of a specific demographic that it ends up flattening everyone, including that demographic, into caricatures.

There's this persistent undercurrent that the author thinks certain people should be on top by default. That the world ought to be handed to them, while everyone else earns their place. It’s not always said outright, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s baked in.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

thanks to the publishers and netgalley for a free copy in return for an open and honest review.

This book looks at historic and demographics of the British working class detailed and uses case studies to highlight characters of different places within Britain where some have several problems ranging from several issues from poor housing, education and employment. The book attempts to discuss the modern white working class without trying to belittle them.

[Julie Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Picador / Macmillan for the advanced reading copy.

This book shines a light on some of the towns in Britain that have the highest concentration of those classified as white British working class and investigates the characteristics and issues facing them.

From chapters about car modification and council estates to education and xenophobia, the author really presents an in depth and non-judgemental assessment of this societal group that are so often stereotyped and dismissed.

An interesting and enlightening read.

[Debby Binns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this on BBC Sounds - it was a very good description and a way of understanding the white working class of Great Britain - a group that is often dismissed.

[Callum Robert Inkster · Rating 1 out of 5]

The level of discussion in this book is entirely misguided due to his insistence that there is a delineation between working class and middle class. Despite the fact it is a struggle to give an "actual" definition of working class, due to the fact, such a delineation does not exist.

A neoliberal exploration of the ones they once called Chavs. With as many attacks against those he deems to be "leftwing", ie two famously "centrist" politicians of Tony Blair and Kier Starmer for their failures to address the needs of the white working class. With a slight undertone and hint of racism, such as attacking Trade Unions for "becoming" groups that protect multiple races not just white workers.

It reads like the "centrists" answer to Reforms focus on the white working class. The only positive being the good light to gives to this group, rather than the typical negative stigmatisation.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the Radio 4 book of the week adaptation.
Even in the heavily abridged form this was very good. It challenged my dismissal of elements of working class culture with it's open approach.

[Jonathan Tench · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. Makes a clear case on how white working class Britons exist (1 in 3 of us), are misunderstood, have varied opinions, are politically important and face specific problems from geography to education. It doesn’t downplay the specific problems working class people from other ethnic backgrounds face. Chapter on ventriloquized xenophobia, how political parties don’t reflect the growing social liberalism of young people from the working class, is especially good.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started out with a simple question about the working class but became quite a bit more about it- it went into a lot of different things I didn’t expect to hear about like car modifying culture in the Uk and things like the identities of various white ethnic groups. I particularly enjoyed the sections on council estates, cross migration (so going from one part of the UK to another) and the discussion about how figure heads such as Enoch Powell having had support from not just the working class- I like how pretty consistently the author has tried to dispel the narrative that only white working class “red wall” voters vote in favour of regressive anti immigration policies. Not all of us that are white and of a working class background are aggressive and dripping at the mouth about immigration and I appreciate somebody taking the time to do the research and discuss it in a relatively accessible way. I won’t lie the things that seem irrelevant did interest me on a sociological level anyways so it appealed to me in more than one way- it does answer its question but it also asks and answers a lot more weird and wonderful questions nobody thought of.

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joel Budd is an economics editor at the Economist and a very experienced journalist, who enjoys nothing better than getting out and mixing it with people. He has a special interest in deprived areas that are often described as left behind. In this book he reports what he found out in Rhymney, Hartlepool, the Isle of Wight, Thetford, Wythenshawe, Peterborough and elsewhere.

He does not neglect academic research and statistics. His main thrust is that the UK is badly skewed: the wider London centred region and a smaller area round Edinburgh are successful and prosperous. Everywhere else performs poorly economically.

White working class people, the main focus of the book, are more varied and more complicated than the press and politicians characterised them. There is much more tolerance of immigrants than people are led to believe. But social housing remains a flashpoint. In multiple areas, there is a strong view that it was built for the then indigenous white working class. Their descendants should have first dibs. He has amusing and interesting chapters on customised cars and the dying profession of bank robbery.

Quite the best book I have read on this subject, much of what he says coincides with what I found working on urban regeneration on Merseyside.

[giannis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic well researched book speaking about issues that most people would avoid even thinking of. The author touches subjects like ethnicity and class in avery well mannered way, in order to promote political directions that help people in need, rather than sticking to stereotypes and promoting hatred.

Each chapter is focusing on a certain part of British white working class daily life, from education, family and politics to modified cars and moving out of your parents home (or not).

A perfect mixture of statistics, social books references and interviews of people that really shade the light to fully understand the past the present and the proper action for the future (last chapter).

A great read for sure and my big respect to the author, he really seems like he knows what he does and I would love to see the policymakers take his insights seriously.

[Mr T Crossland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Underdogs – Joel Budd

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

A compelling and thought-provoking read that shines a light on voices and experiences that are often overlooked. Budd tackles big ideas around class, opportunity, identity, and resilience with genuine curiosity and care, and the book is strongest when it lets those stories speak for themselves. There’s a real sense of purpose here, and much of it is both engaging and illuminating.

That said, the book occasionally feels like it’s pulling in slightly different directions — at times more reflective, at others more polemical — which can interrupt the flow. A tighter structure in places might have helped the central argument land more cleanly.

Still, this is an absorbing, worthwhile read that sticks with you after finishing. Thoughtful, humane, and challenging in the best sense — even if it doesn’t quite fully cohere, it’s well worth the time.

[Mauricio Alencar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read and the topic is very timely. It was a really good overview of problems which white working class Britons face. The book was at its best when it was contextualising data through stories and anecdotes. It was not as strong when the author brought his own argument and theories into play. His own thoughts on immigration are generally unoriginal and slightly dismissive of some of the real impacts at times / lacked deeper analysis. But definitely worth reading and brings important issues to light in sensible way

[Nicholas Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking, stimulating and thoroughly absorbing take on the UK, post Brexit. It's a journey through the country, bringing to life the experiences and perspectives of local people. Personal narratives are combined with analysis. The result is both entertaining and enlightening, shedding light on complex social shifts. Not a JD Vance-style Hillbilly Elegy, Budd focuses more on systemic and historical causes, and offers potential paths forward.

[MR K P WRIGHT · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly constructed examination of modern British society

This work unravels so many of the questions pertaining to modern British society, not just the white working class that it sets out to explore.
The impacts of policy from the Second World War to modern day are analysed in depth, and without bias or prejudice. No-one comes out smelling of roses, but it gives the reader a deeper understanding of what modern Britain is all about.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall interesting - helps dispel a few myths around the modern working class in Britain, especially their politics and concerns.

Teesside featured fairly heavily, which was interesting to read about.

At times the book meandered a little, but overall followed the theme that parliament (and many others beside) has largely misunderstood and misrepresented a large portion of the population.

[Abigail Rickard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The proof I read was missing a whole chapter (chapter 10) 🤨

Interesting exploration of class in the UK. It’s focus did meander at times - which I believe was the authors intention since the central thesis is that the white working class is not homogeneous.
Very readable, not to academic, even had some pretty funny bits 😚

[Louis Marshfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think 3 stars is a little harsh, would be a 3.5. Very analytical on the struggles of the working class, where I was looking for more of a why these stereotypes and conditions have happened. Really enjoyed the very niche topics presented in each chapter. The last two chapters were very very good. The conclusion of why class politics is dying rang so true. Would deffo recommend.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off with a bang but got bogged down half way through. The sections on car modifiers and bank robbers were a strange tangent only slightly related to the topic of the working class. Covers a lot of ground though and does deliver plenty of insights. Worth my time.

[Philip Talmage · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good stuff but short on stats - so you have to rely on his interpretation. And, somehow, he has managed to avoid writing much about the enormous effects of immigration in recent decades and how it has impacted the White Working Class especially.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting bit of social history and perspective - easy to read

First few chapters are the strongest - car modifiers insight was my favorite. It’s easy to read and enjoyable colour on an area often seen as monotone or over simplified.

[Pam Keevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent detailed exploration of the idea behind and evidence of a White working class in the UK today. well researched with plenty of data as well as examples to bring the data alive.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, well researched, well written and surprisingly optimistic.

[Peter Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sobering and persuasive read.

[Gillian Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this deep dive into white working class. It was well-researched, well-written and current. I learned a lot.
8/10

[Jason Buckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it

[Elizabeth Mohr · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a good chapter on parenting but apart from that, for me, book had too many statistics and facts and not nearly enough about how people live

[Nathan Brindle · Rating 4 out of 5]

although I don't agree with all of the authors takes, and wish the referencing system was more obvious, it's a thoroughly interesting exploration of a key issue for the UK

[Elsa Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed very easy to read and some intersting parts

[Jasmin Mulrooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the villainous housing caseworkers from yesteryear.

[Maria Lyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. It isn’t a difficult read, but explores some underreported elements of different people’s experience of 20th-21st century Britain. If I have a criticism, I would say that it’s very English (as opposed to devolved nations) focussed - and that the author may have teased some quite different references and thoughts from spreading his net and interviews north and west.