This is quite a complicated situation- setting my stall out I am not a Tory or remotely right wing but the idea that all working class people are poor and shafted is for the birds. My friend is doing up her house and so far her builder has gone awol for periods because they were in Barbados for 3 weeks in the winter followed by 2 weeks in Florida in the late spring and now has told her he's off to Turkey for 2 weeks in September. I'm not saying that's not ok- just stating that not all working class are struggling. He's doing way way better than most 'middle class' people I know.
The simple fact is life isn't fair and yes some tough unpleasant jobs don't pay that well- on the plus side they are usually quite easy to get employment in with few qualifications . Life is about choices, and the fact is depending where you live a high paid interesting job may not be available and for which you are qualified for on your doorstep. My son made the choice at 19 to move to London for a job with better prospects and £12k better salary- it meant house sharing and not being on our doorstep but he progressed and it was 'a choice' - he didn't sit round moaning that the local wages were shit and why couldn't he get a £30k plus job at 19 on the doorstep. He also did day release as part of this .
Some careers and jobs simply require you to be 'in the office' or on client sites in certain locations, be that London, Manchester or Cardiff- few are actually WFH anywhere early in a career. So if you want to earn well be prepared to move and get yourself some decent qualifications- ideally whilst you have no commitments- there are online courses, plus various other options- it's never been easier but some people just cannot be arsed and make poor life choices and then resort to the politics of envy.
I remember during Brexit when a few mums on Twitter and Facebook actually stated they voted for it because they didn't want their kids to be able to move freely to anywhere in the EU- they wanted them round the corner- I was gobsmacked at the selfishness - but there we are.
With regards to immigration- I think this has come to a head because the Tory's were not honest. They never stated they intended to fill gaps in the workforce by allowing vast numbers of immigrants from outside the EU ( and I'm not talking Aussies/kiwis/US) etc - and also allowing their families- rather than younger EU citizens who tended to house are and often needed little in the way of education or health requirements .
As others have said , the reason immigrants with families have housing priority is often because they have children and often quite a few , which gives them more points-a young Indonesian couple with no kids certainly don't get priority.
I do understand people's frustrations on this especially given a housing shortage in the rental sector- both private and social housing. I personally don't think the Tory's should have allowed any families post Brexit , singles or couples only and job dependent too- that's how it worked when we lived in Copenhagen- you had to have private health too for any that were granted visas post Brexit. High earners with families were often given visas in shortage occupations but you had no recourse to benefits or social housing for a very long time.
It is not wages that are necessarily the big issue in the UK- it's costs- particularly housing costs if you can't get social housing- it's council tax, it's utilities, it's childcare costs - the benefits system has made it such that it doesn't really pay to work full time if on low income and it certainly doesn't pay to buy a house ( not that this is often possible unless you live in a very cheap area) and it certainly doesn't pay to be honest and get married in many situations sadly- so we end up with a bunch of people fiddling the system by lying about domestic arrangements.
It's small things too such as an awful lot of 55 year olds drawing off their pension plans and no longer earning or paying much tax in many cases ( I'm not blaming them , I would probably do the same if I had been able to , but unless chronic ill health is at play I would up this to 60)
With regards to those thinking Farage is the answer- how do you think he would have paid £20k personal allowances when the country is skint? It was fantasy football- but politics instead. My guess is that if it was up to him , benefits would totally go apart from the disabled and very chronically ill. To quote Norman tebbutt ( you need to be as old as me to remember this arse) it would be 'on your bike' - and yes you would be expected to do 3 shitty jobs if you wanted to keep your house and were low paid- I think minimum wage would go too- and NHS would indeed be a pay in system and not remotely like the French or German system-more like the US system. Some would approve of all this but ironically some of the idiots voting for it would be the hardest hit. Very low immigration would mean you still had poor services too , although there would be more take up on low paid work as more people were desparate for income if any kind.
The country needs a huge reset. I do think Labour have the mindset to be in the right place, a lack of cash and a trashed credit rating for the UK are the issue. We need to change people's mindsets to wanting to 'get on' - not just 'get by' - we need to prioritise affordable housing for locals, we need to get rid of Airbnb of whole units ( sorry for those who like it or profit from it but it's ruining the rental sector in so many areas) we need to stop ridiculing experts and listening the the 1 crank who likes a particular ideology (Patrick Minford I'm
Looking at you) and more than anything we need to pursue some more appropriate policies with the EU that encourages cooperation in key areas, gets trade flowing again and encourages investment. Even if that is a half way house like a Norway deal. Brexit may work for the average builder who has got rid of his Czech competitor, it doesn't work for so many other businesses who have any international component to them at all- be that supermarkets or car parts!