Six ways the coronavirus pandemic threatens to worsen inequality in the UK

Analysis: The pandemic is interacting with and exacerbating the UK’s many inequalities. The public policy challenge of unwinding them will be massive, writes Ben Chu

The gender pay gap could widen (Getty/iStock)

Inequality was a major political flashpoint before the coronavirus even arrived on the UK’s shores.

But the pandemic has now forced problems of inequality even further up the political agenda thanks to its grossly uneven impact on different parts of society.

The health impact of Covid-19 and the economic impact of the lockdown has not only exposed existing inequalities of income, gender, education, ethnicity, region and age, but is also threatening to make them worse.