Miliband calls for bankers' pay inquiry

LABOUR leadership hopeful Ed Miliband wants to use a high-pay commission to end excess pay for big bankers.

He said it was a "tragedy" that ordinary bank workers were the ones suffering as a result of irresponsibility at the top.

But he insisted the financial services sector in Edinburgh and elsewhere had a bright future.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat UK coalition government has announced moves to stop public sector bosses being paid more than 20 times the salary of their lowest paid employee. Mr Miliband believes the policy should also apply in the private sector – including the banks.

In an interview with the Evening News, he said: "We should have a high-pay commission looking at what's happening in the private sector.

"You can't say you want to deal with unfairness in the public sector but you're not going to do anything about it in the private sector. It's very important we restore the good name of Britain's financial services and Scotland's financial services.

"We need to look at the reason for this explosion in differentials in banks and financial services and elsewhere."