Despite the debate over whether Britain is ‘broken’, all political parties now agree that Britain’s recent high levels of inequality have had profound negative social consequences. But whilst the left retains a faith in the state’s ability to improve the lot of the poorest and the right places its faith

in the family, the need to repair the social fabric through constraints on runaway top salaries and the bonus culture receives less attention.

The Test:

Compared to many other developed countries, Britain has a high level of income inequality, with the richest 20 per cent having incomes at least 7 times higher than the poorest 20 per cent, leading to our comparatively poor performance on levels of mental health, teenage births, imprisonment, drug abuse, social mobility and more. By the end of the next Parliament, the reduction of  inequality should be established as a national target and the ratio of the incomes of the top 20 per cent reduced to no more than 5 and a half times the incomes of the bottom 20 per

cent. This would bring our inequality down to levels currently enjoyed by Canada, France, Switzerland and Spain.