Growing up in a north-west ex-mining/steel town and moving to London, I've yet to see a consistent definition of exactly what constitutes one's class. There seem to be big differences between how class is perceived in "t'north" versus the south, and I suspect the definitions there are have become even more ill-defined as the UK has become ever more "post-industrial" and people who come from historically working-class families find themselves in more stereotypically middle-class roles. As such I think the perception of class is incredibly mutable depending on where, when and how you grew up.
Little doubt about me I guess - I come from a long line of middle-class families (well, one branch of it started out working class until about a hundred years ago) doing primarily academic or clerical activities. The working class of my youth were people whose parents were all involved in the mines, mills or factories. Individual income disparity between my parents' professions and the industrial jobs wasn't huge (although both of my parents worked for the state their entire adult lives whereas most other families were private sector single-earner + housewife). I suspect if I'd grown up in a different environment I might have a very different perception though.
When I came to London for uni, I was frankly astonished to discover a lot of people in the south considering my families position as working class, as their definition of middle class seemed to be like that of Hugh Grant in Four Weddings (something that's distinctly upper class in my book). I did wonder if there was some sort of self-shaming going on there, wanting to seem less posh that they were. I remember attending a house party at the gaff of someone who seemed as middle-class as me whilst their parents were away only to be shocked to discover it was a 12-bedroom pile complete with library and stables, not the four-bedroom semi I was expecting; if he was slumming it, he did a good job of disguising it. But there were also people far less rich than he was who openly sneered at me ("you really are frightfully common!") for having the audacity to turn up at uni after having only been to a comprehensive and a sixth-form.
This experience has been echoed through much of my time darn sarf; a year or two ago there was a surreal BBC doco called "How the middle-class ruined britain" where stereotypical middle-class events were scoffing chateaubriand and top-drawer wine in black tie and ya-ya-ing on about Cowes week, things that seemed distinctly posh/upper-class to what I might call my northern sensibilities.
Attempting to swerve vaguely back on topic: I think a lot of people from working class stock see themselves as more middle class since they're no longer working down the mines or in a factory like their forefathers; a lot of upper class people don't see themselves as being rich enough to have more than one yacht so see themselves as middle class. Income inequality seems massively larger between richest and poorest in the south than it does oop norf, but that frequently doesn't seem to correlate with people's sense of class.
As such, I think the various class labels are largely so subjective as to be mostly useless and frequently used to stifle or railroad discussion about ever-rampant income disparity. Perception of it seems different all over the place; it's a much more complex question of self-image vs. income than the classic bowler/fedora/flat cap sketch would have you believe. I think more important than simple divides of class is the attitude people take towards those they see as above/below them, but that's an even more incomprehensible discussion point.
