High pay commission

Disgust at excessive pay levels, fuelled by the banking crisis, has prompted calls for the setting up of a high pay commission.

Labour pressure group Compass says a commission is needed to review pay at the top and examine ideas like maximum wage ratios and bonus taxation. It is backed by 100 figures from across the centre left including Billy Hayes (general secretary of the CWU communications union), Brendan Barber (TUC general secretary) and Jon Cruddas (Labour MP for Dagenham).

Hayes told BBC News: “There needs to be a measure of what’s acceptable because when things go wrong we’ve seen that banks rely on society — to the tune of £1.3 trillion in recent bail-outs.”