According to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the taxation policies of the Tory (Conservative) Party were decided on the playing field of Eton (one of Britain's top private schools). Thus, Gordon Brown, whose Labour government trails in the opinion polls behind the Conservative opposition, seemed from this and other remarks to be trying to inject an element of class warfare into the forthcoming election campaign.
He hopes that calling the Tory leaders toffs will resonate with Labour's core supporters, who are supposed to be the cloth cap-wearing working class. Such cheap jibes will please a few supporters but are unlikely to be of much long-term value with the majority of middle-income voters on whose support the Labour Party has had to rely.
Brown has, however, reopened the debate about the nature of class in Britain and the degree of class consciousness in Britain compared to other countries. The old strata comprising the landed gentry at the top followed by the new wealth of commerce and industry and then the professional classes (doctors, lawyers, teachers), shop assistants, artisans and laborers who work with their hands no longer reflects reality — at least since the end of the World War II. Britain has become much more of a meritocracy and birth, at least, counts for very little. Wealth and education remain determining factors.