Peter Sloman

Peter Sloman is Professor of British Politics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Churchill College. Before moving to Cambridge in 2015, he was a junior research fellow at New College, Oxford. 

Peter's research focusses on political ideas, public policy, and electoral politics in modern Britain. His first book, The Liberal Party and the Economy, 1929-1964 (Oxford, 2015) explored how British Liberals engaged with economic thought in the era of John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge. His second book, Transfer State (Oxford, 2019), examined how changing attitudes to work and social welfare have shaped the development of Universal Credit and the campaign for a universal basic income. Together with Daniel Zamora Vargas and Pedro Ramos Pinto, he has co-edited an essay collection on Universal Basic Income in Historical Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Peter has also published articles in a wide range of history and political science journals. He is currently working on the politics of tax and spending in the UK and other Westminster democracies.

Two recent focusses have been:

• How have British governments, policy-makers, and activists attempted to give meaning to concepts such as social justice and minimum needs through tax, social benefits, and other redistributive policies? 
• How do political parties frame tax and spending proposals in their election campaigns, and why do voters seem to respond to them in different ways in different contexts?