"Our Generation Was Lied To": Two Gen Z MPs on Fixing Politics

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Vicky Spratt (2:41)

They face some of the highest house prices in history, more student debt than any other generation, a cost of living crisis, and a climate crisis. Their mental health is in crisis. Welcome back to The Gen Z Story. I'm Vicky Spratt, and these are just some of the themes that we discussed. When we made our series, there was one leader who polled best amongst younger people. It was Andy Burnham, and we're back, because he is now the Prime Minister. So, what's going on? Are young people really a bunch of snowflakes with no resilience who expect too much from society?

Or has the social contract broken? Are they going to be without some of the trappings of security that their parents and grandparents had, a safe and secure home, retirement, the state pension? Well, I've just finished interviewing two Gen Z members of Andy Burnham's government. We've had Rosie Wrighting, who is a PPS at the Ministry of Defence and the MP for Kettering here, alongside Keir Mather. He's the MP for Selby and a junior minister at the Department of Transport. I found talking to them really fascinating, and honestly, sometimes quite confronting. I think this is a landmark moment to talk about what's going on with younger people and whether Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, can fix it.

Rosie and Keir, welcome to The Gen Z Story. Thank you so much for coming in to chat about being Gen Z, or Gen Zed, I keep getting told off for pronouncing it the American way, sorry, MPs. We've talked a lot about all of the things that are going on for young people, high housing costs, tuition fees, the jobs market, mental health. How bad do you think Gen Z have it really? What's your diagnosis?

Rosie Wrighting (4:25)

Gen Z have it incredibly hard.

There's no longer a feeling that effort means reward. And that is a dangerous place to be, because if you're not actually sure what you're meant to do, and I see this in my friends, and I also want to acknowledge the fact that I'm in an abnormally privileged position for my age, but I speak to my friends, I felt it myself. You no longer know what you're meant to do to build yourself a good, happy, secure life. And that is a really scary place to be as a country. I think that the way that we talk about Gen Z as well, it's scary because you hear a lot about, oh, this is a generation that can't go off their phones, or can't concentrate in all of this, with little ability to acknowledge that this is a generation that has been through COVID, the cost of living crisis, a housing crisis, Brexit, all of these things. It's an incredibly resilient tech-driven generation. We're just unable to unlock and we need to, for the sake of all generations and our economy.