Covid lockdowns had ‘catastrophic effect’ on UK’s social fabric, report claims

Research by centre-right thinktank says gap between the mainstream and poorest in society is widening

Covid lockdowns had a catastrophic effect" on the UK's social fabric and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the financial crash, a new report claims.

The country is in danger of sliding back into the divisions of the Victorian era, marked by a widening gap between the mainstream and the poorest in society, according to an inquiry by the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).