The poorest of England die 10 YEARS before the richest – and the gap is widening

The poorest people in England die 10 years before the richest, the gap in life expectancy widening.

Stagnant wages, austerity, dependence on food banks, poor regimes and inequalities in health are at stake.

The poorest children under five are 2.5 times more likely to die child than the richest.

The diseases that cause particularly early burials include heart disease, cancer and dementia.

Professor Majid Ezzati, lead author at Imperial College London, warned: "The inequality of life expectancy has steadily increased in England since the 1980s".

The study found that the gap in women was 7.9 years in 2016, rising from 78.8 years for the poorest to 86.7 years on average for the wealthiest. For men, the gap was 9.7 years, the most affluent dying at 83.7 years.

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According to Professor Ezzati, a drop of 0.24 years of life expectancy among the poorest women since 2011 is an "extremely worrying indicator".

Ian Blackford, of the Mirror, said this week that nearly a quarter of Britons lived in poverty, according to the findings of a recent UN report.

The author of the report said that British ministers lived in a "state of denial" facing the extreme poverty existing in the country.

Philip Alston, UN rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said he was surprised that British ministers were "satisfied" with the way their social protection policies evolved.