WOMEN will earn less than men for another 60 years if the government does not do more to narrow the pay gap, a senior Labour MP said yesterday.

Shadow women and equalities minister Gloria de Piero has uncovered figures in the Commons library revealing that the pay gap rose in 2013 from 19.6 per cent to 19.7 per cent. The figure had previously fallen steadily from 27.5 per cent in 1997.

Women still earn only 80p for every pound men take home.

“The Tories are turning the clock back for women,” said Ms de Piero.

“More women are struggling to make work pay, earning less than the living wage and facing sky-high childcare costs.

“This isn’t the progress our mothers, aunties and sisters fought for.

“When David Cameron claims that working women have never had it so good, women know this isn’t a government that speaks for them.

“Only Labour will deliver on the promise of equal pay with pay transparency, tackle the scandal of low pay and expand access to free childcare to make work pay for families across Britain.”

A Labour source has told the Independent newspaper that a commitment to equal pay will be at the heart of the party’s election manifesto next year.

“Equal pay was one of the things that got neglected” from the last Labour government, the source told the paper. “We mustn’t let the opportunity go to waste again.”

Public service union Unison assistant general secretary Karen Jennings said: “It is a disgrace that so many years after the Equal Pay Act there is still an enormous pay gap between men and women.

“Women’s work is still not being valued, despite the fact they often are in vital jobs for society working as nurses, carers and midwives. The government and employers need to take action.”

Liberal Democrat MP Lorely Burt said: “It’s time to make large companies publish the difference between what they pay men and women — and it’s a shame that the Tories have blocked this in government.”