The UK Labour party is eagerly anticipating the results of Ontario’s trial of a basic income, as the party looks to regain public trust over welfare.

One interpretation of the chancellor’s latest budget, announced yesterday, is that it exacerbates inequality in Britain. The Labour party, along with many other countries around the globe, is considering a universal basic income as a method of distributing welfare equally.

This follows the news that Ontario, Canada could soon begin trialing a universal basic income.

“Nearly two-thirds of the public don’t trust Labour on welfare, so this is a really important issue for us to get right,” says Ian Austin Labour MP for Dudley North.

“I’m open to radical new approaches on welfare, so I think that the Liberals’ trial of a basic income in Ontario is really interesting and I’ll be following it closely.”

Supporters of the idea argue a universal basic income would reduce welfare costs – in the form of savings on administering means-tested welfare payments – reduces poverty and gives people the autonomy to be more creative, which in turn boosts productivity and entrepreneurship.

The notion of giving people a basic income is also becoming increasingly pertinent as intelligent robots are expected to replace workers in skilled and unskilled industries.

However, detractors have argued that within a meritocracy a basic income given to everyone would be the antithesis of fairness.

This is a point the Labour party is keen to emphasise.

“My concern about a basic income is that it fails to address the public’s concerns about fairness. People on the doorstep already tell me that people who work hard should get more, and that’s something a basic income can’t address,” says Austin.

“I think the solution must be to put contribution at the heart of the welfare system, so that hard work is rewarded with more support.”

This is not the first time the Labour Party has suggested it would consider a universal basic income as part of its welfare policy.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said the Labour Party would not rule out unconditional pay for all members of society during a talk at the London School of Economics.

The Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, also said during the leadership contest that he was interested in the idea of a “guaranteed social wage”.

He did acknowledge though that there were issues that had to be worked through before such a policy could be implemented.

UK think tank the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce has endorsed implementing some form of universal income in the UK that would give a basic amount to citizens aged between 25 and 65.

The think tank published a detailed report proposing basic income of £3,692 for all qualifying citizens or £308 per month.

Anthony Painter and Chris Thoung, authors of the report, said the current approach to welfare “is no longer fit-for-purpose”, and a new approach is required.

Additional reporting by Joseph Davies