What Theresa May should put in her manifesto

Will executive pay pop up in Theresa May’s manifesto? An objective of her snap election is to secure a larger majority on the basis of a smaller burden of manifesto promises than she inherited from David Cameron. But in her only leadership campaign speech last July, her reference to ‘an irrational, unhealthy and growing gap between what those companies pay their workers and what they pay their bosses’ was one of the phrases that caught the most attention.

Back then, she was in favour of imposing annual binding shareholder votes on boardroom remuneration, as well as spotlighting the ratio between chief executives’ and average workers’ pay, and even forcing companies to accept workers’ representatives on boards. At last November’s CBI conference, however, she backed away from that last threat, resorting instead to what I described as ‘mood music’ designed to lure corporate support for her Brexit stance with talk of the lowest corporate tax rates in the G20 and more state cash for research and development.