Could Boris Johnson’s reference to Beveridge be the beginning of much-needed welfare reform?

The social reformer recognised that the Second World War had provided a transformative shock and seized his opportunity. The coronavirus pandemic could provide another, writes Ben Chu

William Beveridge with his report on social security during a press conference at the Ministry of Information, 1942 (Getty)

In his virtual Conservative Party conference speech earlier this month Boris Johnson reached into the British politician’s big bag of wartime cliches and pulled out a civil servant called Beveridge.

“In the depths of the Second World War, in 1942 when just about everything had gone wrong, the government sketched out a vision of the post-war new Jerusalem that they wanted to build,” the prime minister recalled. “And that is what we are doing now – in the teeth of this pandemic.”

Johnson was referring to a report written in 1942 by an old Liberal called Sir William Beveridge.