Corbyn: Footballers' pay 'obscene'; there should be a national wage cap

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said there should be a national cap on higher earnings to clamp down on "grotesque" footballer and fat cat salaries.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Corbyn laid into the "simply ridiculous" salaries earned by Premiership footballers, the levels of executive pay and the "grotesque" gap between the rich and the poor.

However, while Mr Corbyn would not put a figure on the cap, he said it would be "somewhat higher" than his £138,000 salary and asked why anyone would need more than £50m to live on.

Mr Corbyn said the earnings gap between the poorest in society and the very rich was the worst of any Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development and needed to be addressed.

He said: "What we are also looking at is the inequality of the grotesque levels of difference between the average wages paid in our society and the sort of telephone number salaries paid at the top end of it and we have growing levels of inequality on that."

He added: "I think, certainly, the salaries that are paid to some footballers are simply ridiculous. I think some of the salaries paid to very high-earning top executives of companies are utterly ridiculous."

Mr Corbyn carried out a round of interviews on Tuesday morning apparently designed as an image overhaul to let "Corbyn be Corbyn" and cast himself as a Left-wing, anti-establishment leader.

It is not the first time Mr Corbyn has suggested introducing a national maximum wage - he raised the issue when he was running for the Labour leadership the first time round in 2015.

He is also giving a speech later on Tuesday in an attempt to clarify the party's position on immigration, saying he is "not wedded to freedom of movement".

He will say: "Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle.

"But nor can we afford to lose full access to the European markets on which so many British businesses and jobs depend. Changes to the way migration rules operate from the EU will be part of the negotiations."

It comes after deputy leader Tom Watson told Sky (Frankfurt: 893517 - news) 's Sophy Ridge on Sunday it was "unfair" to expect the party to have an immigration policy when the Government had no Brexit strategy.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Corbyn said he would manage migration by preventing employers seeking out immigrants to do jobs for lower wages and paying zero hours contracts, especially in industries such as construction.

He did not back the two-tier system, which would allow high-skilled immigrants and sector-based lower skilled immigrants to come to the UK to work, backed by Labour backbenchers Stephen Kinnock and Emma Reynolds.