Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that data showing pay had fallen further behind the rising cost of living was placing “further pressure on so many families, so many working people”.
He defended his plan to freeze energy prices this winter.
The comments came as official figures revealed that millions of workers are being hit by the sharpest fall in real wages on record.
Regular pay, excluding bonuses and taking into account sky-high inflation, nose-dived by 4.1 per cent in the three months to June, compared with a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
