Jeremy Corbyn condemns McDonald's pay gap in attack on 'epidemic of low pay'

Labour leader also denounces public sector pay offer as an attempt to 'divide people on the cheap'

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Jeremy Corbyn has launched an attack on the “epidemic of low pay”, condemning top bosses with salaries thousands of times more than those of the average worker.

The Labour leader said the pay gap at firms such as McDonald’s – whose chief executive is paid 1,300 times more than ordinary staff – was symbolic of the “deep inequality and injustice that scars our society”.

In a major speech to trade unions, Mr Corbyn dismissed Downing Street’s pledge to scrap the unpopular public sector pay cap for police and prison officers as attempts to “divide people on the cheap” and promised to extend it to all workers.

He failed to address the threat of strike action after public sector unions backed a motion in favour of industrial action if the cap was not lifted for all workers.

Mr Corbyn told delegates at the TUC Congress in Brighton: “Modern Britain is marked by growing insecurity at work which undermines and holds back both low-paid workers and the better-paid.

“This escalating insecurity is not only bad for individual workers and their families ... it is also bad for our economy and for our whole society.

“This epidemic of low pay, which is closely tied up with insecurity at work ruins people’s lives, leaving workers and their families locked in poverty.”

He offered his support for striking McDonald’s workers and accused Theresa May of failing to condemn the pay gap at the fast food chain when he raised the issue in Prime Minister’s Questions last week.

He said: “I want to pay tribute to those unions which are working so hard to organise insecure workers and have taken on the exploiters – as Unite has done at SportsDirect and the Bakers’ Union has done so impressively last week at McDonald’s.

“McDonald’s boss is paid 1,300 times more than the lowest-paid of his staff, symbolic of the deep inequality and injustice that scars our society.”

The speech came hours after the Government announced plans for a pay rise above the 1 per cent cap for police and prison officers, which unions immediately condemned as an effective pay cut due to a rise in living costs.

Mr Corbyn said: “This Government’s position seems to change by the hour. At the weekend we were led to believe the pay cap was a thing of the past.

“Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said it would continue as planned. Today, as inflation rises to nigh on 3 per cent, they try to divide people on the cheap.

“The Prison Officers Association (POA) is right. A pay cut is a pay cut. We must be united in breaking the pay cap for all workers.”

Mr Corbyn also attempted to clarify Labour’s position on Brexit, saying it would pursue access to the single market after Britain leaves the bloc.