By Philippa Stroud

It seems everyone is talking about social justice now. From Owen Smith making his pitch to Labour Party members, to Theresa May on the steps of Downing Street. In our topsy-turvy political world, a commitment to social justice seems to be the one thing everyone agrees on.

This superficial consensus hides a new fault line in our political language. When some speak of social justice they view it as financial redistribution through the welfare state. When others speak of social justice they view it as addressing the ‘root causes’ of poverty which repeat the cycle of poverty over and over again.

Our political class talk of little other than social justice because they understand that the EU referendum result exposed divisions even greater than the simple binary choice on the ballot paper.

This social unrest will continue to dominate our politics until the lives of those living in poverty and the uneven impact of globalisation and inter-generational poverty are addressed.

Opinion polling conducted following the referendum, asking people why they voted they way they did, points decisively to a wider feeling of isolation from an economy that simply doesn't work for those at the bottom and a political class that has become disconnected from the daily challenges facing low income voters. 

As Theresa May said on the steps of Downing Street, "life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise". This is the real lesson of the referendum. 

The biggest negotiation facing Theresa May will not be with EU leaders, but re-negotiating the conditions faced by those living in our poorest towns and villages.

By Sarah Champion MP

The UK has been commended as a world leader in the fight against slavery. The Modern Slavery Act was a significant milestone for the UK. It gives clarity to our national approach, provides better support for victims and harsher penalties for perpetrators. However, the battle is far from over.

It recently came to light that 241 children seeking asylum in the UK are missing from care. There is a concerning lack of understanding about the risk of exploitation and coercion aimed at vulnerable unaccompanied migrant children.

In a recent Westminster Hall debate I spoke about the need for these children to have someone independent by their side and on their side to navigate their way through the immigration, social care and justice systems.

We can’t tackle modern slavery in isolation.

As a European community with many shared borders we need to work together to tackle this exploitation and end modern slavery.

In the CSJ report, A Modern Response to Modern Slavery, they called for a co-ordinated response to anti-trafficking that is European-wide. It is crucial that policy makers and law enforcement agencies across Europe combine their efforts in order to stop children from slipping through the net. Combining efforts will also provide a clearer profile of Organised Crime Groups that are targeting young people and exploiting the immigration system.

Sarah Champion is Labour MP for Rotherham and a Shadow Home Office Minister

By Saskia Greenhalgh 

It's been a bad week for business and the public image of business leaders.

The power and potential of business to have a positive social impact is significant and what's more the evidence suggests that good practice can positively benefit the bottom-line.

A major study by the University of Oxford, looking at previous research into business practice, found that businesses which took a longer term view of their social impact also saw an improvement in profitablitiy. 80% of these studies found a strong link between responsible business practices and stock price performance.

Business leaders do not have to choose between being profitable and being responsible. They need to recognise this and to also wake up to the crisis of public confidence that is occurring. The conversation around the boardroom table must be urgently changed.

As a first step, measuring the wider impact of business should be embedded in accounting systems, going beyond simple profit and loss accounts and extending the duty on Directors to take a wider and longer term view of the impact of their business.

Enterprise and commerce remains the biggest and best drivers of social progress but we need to go much further in promoting a model of business practice that benefits the least well off as much as those at the top.