Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury of 2 July 2019, Official Report Vol 662, Column 1054, which countries in Europe his Department considers to have higher levels of social inequality than the UK, and what criteria his Department used to make that assessment.

The most common measure of inequality is income, and there are a number of countries in Europe that had a higher level of income inequality than the UK in 2017, including Spain, Portugal and Greece. Income inequality by this metric is lower today than it was in 2010.

Such measures of inequality do not capture the benefit households receive from the Government’s significant and progressive spending on public services. In 2019/20, the lowest income households will receive over £4 in public spending for every £1 they pay in tax on average. While the highest income households will contribute over £5 in tax for every £1 they receive in public spending on average.