Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, commenting on a survey from High Pay Centre, said:

“Paying top executives 140 times the average pay of their employees makes no economic or moral sense. There is simply no excuse for the wealthiest people in this country to award themselves a 10% pay rise while the rest of the country saw their pay increase by just 2% last year.

“The Prime Minister has promised to get tough on corporate governance, but we have so far seen her silent as scandals at Sports Direct and BHS shock the nation.

“Only Labour has the political will to tackle unequal pay. That is why we are promising to introduce collective bargaining for all large employers and to give democratically elected workers’ representatives a binding say on board room decisions. The Prime Minister has started making the right noises, but it is only political commitment backed up by radical action that will allow us to make our economy serve the interests of all stakeholders rather than lining the pockets of a privileged few. ”