EXECUTIVE pay is back in the headlines - thanks to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

In a widely-covered interview broadcast on the BBC, he called the pay of company bosses - as well as top flight footballers - "utterly ridiculous".

He said: "If we want to live in a more egalitarian society and fund our public services, we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality.

"I would like to see a maximum earnings limit, quite honestly, because I think that would be a fairer thing to do. We cannot set ourselves up as being a sort of grossly unequal, bargain-basement economy on the shores of Europe."

This statement was widely ridiculed, with one of his former advisers, Danny Blanchflower, going as far as saying it was a "lunatic idea".

It was later said that Mr Corbyn had "misspoken" and he subsequently said a better way of curbing executive pay would be by controlling the pay ratio between the highest and lowest earners in a company.

What do people on both sides of business - worker and bosses - in south Cumbria think of Mr Corbyn's proposals?

Chris Ward, the chairman of the Cumbrian branch of the Institute of Directors, does not support the idea.

He said: “The IoD has long argued that big companies need to be aware of public concerns about executive pay, but the leader of the opposition’s suggestion of a maximum earning cap is a non-starter.

"Politicians simply do not know the right level of pay for the heads of multinational companies, and no successful economy operates with this level of intervention by government.

"Would the cap also affect entrepreneurs who have built up a successful company, who surely have every right to the rewards?

"This doesn’t mean nothing should be done. The recent Green Paper on corporate governance reform put forward options for encouraging board and shareholders to get a grip on executive pay, which could have a real impact. Boards must see the suggestion as a warning of things to come if they do not show they can moderate directors’ remuneration.”

Mr Ward though had been paying attention during the interview.

He said: "I think he was shooting from the hip. I listened to the interview live on the BBC and the interviewer was pressing him [Mr Corbyn] and I think he was trying to get out of saying something else.

"The idea has not got any legs but that is not to say nothing should be done. The IoD has long argued against - for want of better words - fat cat payouts."

Mr Ward added that excessive pay and other financial issues in business such as mismanagement of pensions was "in nobody's interests".

Dave Armstrong, the North West regional organiser for Britain's second-biggest trade union, Unison, thought that the Labour leader may have a point.

He said: “There is a real problem in our society because work does not pay enough for people to live on. Having a job is no guarantee of being above the poverty line, and workers in public services have faced falling living standards due to the Tories capping their pay below the rate of inflation. There is certainly a need for wages for low and middle income earners to be higher.

“I think Jeremy Corbyn is on to something when he identifies pay inequality as a problem. It is grossly unfair when the bosses are paying themselves hundreds of times what their workers get.

"If everyone was rewarded fairly for the real value of their contributions, then pay rates would be much more equal and we could perhaps see an end to in-work poverty.”

Steve Turner, the assistant general secretary of Britain's largest union, Unite, said the pay gap reflected systemic injustices within the economy.

“Despite a fall in wages and living standards for working people over the last nine years, the pay of top executives has continued to increase beyond all reason,” he added.