TORY ministers have abandoned the “equal pay generation to decades of low wages,” Labour warned today as it predicted that the gender pay gap for women in their fifties is not on course to close until the middle of the century.

Shadow women and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds stressed that women born around the passing of the ground-breaking Equal Pay Act 1970, which was given royal assent 53 years ago today, are being disproportionately hit by “13 years of Tory failings.”

The party’s analysis shows that, at the current rate, it would take until 2050 to close the gender pay gap for full-time female workers aged 50-59, who suffer the highest disparity at a whopping 11.7 per cent.