Downwardly mobile graduates are arguably becoming the UK’s electoral kingmakers – and could spur a political revolution

Some groups loom larger in the national imagination than others. It has become a shibboleth that economically left, socially conservative ex-Labour voters in the “red wall” are the UK’s political kingmakers and therefore must be wooed. Yet there is little mention of the graduate without a future, a group that first emerged after the 2010 student protests and continues to grow in numbers.

Across the UK there are nearly 5 million graduates working in non-graduate roles. The much-vaunted graduate premium – the idea that graduates earn more than non-graduates over their lifetime – is in drastic decline. New research from the Resolution Foundation shows that new graduate salaries have fallen sharply in real terms over the past two decades, while the minimum wage has risen slightly. With the exception of Stem, law, finance and management, university is no longer a guaranteed ticket to social mobility and a better life.

Dan Evans is a sociologist and author. His latest book is A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petite Bourgeoisie