The gap between rich and poor in the UK is wider now than 40 years ago, a government-commissioned report says. Source: The BBC.

Whilst it’s popular to bash Labour it seems very convenient for Tories and the press to forget who was in power when the biggest rises in inequality occurred. Here’s a clue from the report.

Inequalities in earnings and incomes are high in Britain, both compared with other industrialised countries, and compared with thirty years ago. Over the most recent decade, earnings inequality has narrowed a little and income inequality has stabilised on some measures, but the large inequality growth of the 1980s has not been reversed. Source: Government Equalities Office.

The answer – the Tory government of Margret Thatcher which was in power from 4th May 1979 – to her resignation in 28th November 1990 – her government sold off much of the states wealth at knock down prices from council houses to British telecom as well as carrying out much of the banking de-regulation that helped to allow the recent banking crisis to occur – Labour didn’t actually come to power until 2nd May 1997 – we had another seven years of the Tories under John Major.

It’s easy to blame Labour for failure to close the income gap in society – the trouble is it’s very easy to give someone something it is almost impossible to take it back.

The report also points out some of Labour’s successes.

Some of the widest gaps in outcomes between social groups have narrowed in the last decade, particularly between the earnings of women and men, and in the educational qualifications of different ethnic groups. However, deep-seated and systematic differences in economic outcomes remain between social groups across all of the dimensions we examine. Despite the elimination and even reversal of the qualification differences that often explain them, significant differences remain in employment rates and relative pay between men and women and between ethnic groups. Source: Government Equalities Office.

Still that won’t stop nonsense from the Tories and their supporters.

Theresa May, shadow minister for women and equalities said: “It is unbelievable that Labour thinks it can claim to be the party of aspiration when its failure to tackle the causes of poverty have let down so many lives.” Source: BBC.

So much for Cameron’s much for Tory honesty – a word Cameron loves to use – I suggest he takes a look at his own cabinet ministers before making accusations.