Value of pay `rises by 26%' under Tories

The value of British workers' take-home pay when inflation is taken into account increased by 26 per cent between 1979 and 1994, a report said yesterday.

The corresponding figure for France was 1.8 per cent and for Germany it was 2.5 per cent, said Dr Walter Eltis, an economist who analysed data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Dr Eltis, economic adviser to Michael Heseltine while he was President of the Board of Trade, pointed out in his report for the Centre for Policy Studies that, since 1980, increases in benefits in Britain had been linked to prices, whereas in France and Germany they were linked to wages. As a result, "British workers have not had to share the fruits of economic growth with pensioners and the unemployed", he said.