TORIES ‘MUST TACKLE FAT CAT PAY... OR THEY’LL LOSE ELECTION’

THE Conservatives will lose the next election unless they tackle fat cat pay, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher warned yesterday.

Lord Young, who served as trade secretary in the Thatcher government in the late 1980s, hit out at the ‘unbelievable amounts of money people are paying themselves’ for doing ‘bureaucratic jobs’ at the top of large corporations.

The Tory grandee warned that public anger over’ pay packages for City fat cats was driving voters towards Labour.

It comes after it emerged directors at City predator Melrose could share bonuses worth up to £ 85 million if they succeed in the £8 billion takeover of engineering giant GKN.

Questions have also been asked about an extraordinary £110 million bonus awarded to Jeff Fairburn, head of house builder Persimmon. Asked about Mr Fairburn’s bonus, Lord Young told the Mail on Sunday: ‘It is getting appalling ... I’m not sure what people who run large companies are doing paying themselves large amounts of money.

‘That is wrong – there’s no question about it ... and that will lose us an election.’ He said the Tories would always be ‘happy to become wealthy by creating wealth’, but suggested many chief executives did not take the kind of risks that could justify their rewards.

‘Being at the top of a large company is almost a bureaucratic job, and yet you find people earning £5million, £1million – ridiculous amounts,’ he added.