Social policy falls predominantly under national rather than European Union (EU) jurisdiction, yet there are multiple ways in which social policy and social outcomes in EU member states have been affected by EU membership. Drawing on existing evidence and analysis, this paper seeks to map out the likely consequences of Brexit for social policy in the UK. It explores what ‘taking back control’ of money, borders and laws is likely to mean for living standards, access to high quality public services, and social and employment rights, and asks what action the UK government might take to limit the risks and maximise opportunities.

About the speaker:
Kitty Stewart is Associate Professor of Social Policy at the LSE and Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE). She has a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence and joined LSE in 2001, having previously worked at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence. Her recent research focuses primarily on the causes and consequences of child poverty. She is also a core member of the CASE research team that has tracked policy, spending and outcomes relating to poverty and inequality in the UK under successive governments since 1997. Her work on Brexit is joint work with colleagues Kerris Cooper and Isabel Shutes and was conducted as part of the Nuffield-funded Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes research programme.