Tackle this divide which damages UK

BRITAIN is divided and the gulf has never been wider.

Yesterday saw campaigners claim victory in a legal bid to prevent cash-strapped Northamptonshire County Council closing 21 of its 36 libraries.

The Tory local authority is an extreme example of the scores of crisis-hit councils across the country, starved of funds from the Government. Yet today’s report shows there is no lack of cash swilling around Britain’s boardrooms. It is wrong to condemn bumper pay deals for all CEOs.

At their best, the FTSE 100 firms they run employ tens of thousands of people, create vital money for the economy, grow and innovate – and their bosses show leadership. But too many executives have grown fat by benefiting from a wider rise in share prices or through easy-to-hit bonus targets.

But, good or bad, the sheer scale of the payouts, when millions of ordinary workers have endured a decade of austerity, is hard to swallow.

Brexit divided Britain. And the widening wealth gap is doing the same. Boardrooms, big shareholders, the Government and others need to unite to quell those concerns.