THE language used by the Tories’ Merseyside spokesman Chris Grayling to describe the growing social divide in Liverpool – and in cities across Britain – is stark.

In a speech to be given tomorrow, he will say the gap between the richest and poorest in Liverpool is now at its widest since Victorian times.

According to analysis by the Conservatives, Breckfield and Vauxhall wards have pockets of worklessness where half of working age people are dependent on benefits, while in Childwall and Abercromby, less than 5% of the population are on benefits, far below the national average.

He contrasts the booming city centre with the nearby district of Toxteth, where there are “streets where no one works, street corners where drug dealing is the main business with children being brought up in squalor.”

Although Mr Grayling restricts his comments to large cities such as Liverpool, he could also have pointed out that much the same social divide can be seen on the Wirral peninsula, where there are similar stark contrasts between high unemployment and poverty in some areas, and great material wealth and prosperity in others.

This suggests that the problems he describes are not unique to cities, but can be found in much larger administrative areas.

Mr Grayling’s political opponents will no doubt be quick to point out the ironies of a Conservative shadow minister talking about the evils of social inequality, when his party did little to address those inequalities when they were last in power. Indeed, many will say the extreme gap between rich and poor is a legacy of those times.

Nevertheless, this should not detract from the seriousness of the issue highlighted by Mr Grayling.

Now that Liverpool has benefited so much from the regeneration that has taken place over the past few years, it is time to extend that to other parts of Merseyside which have so far felt left out of all the great things that have been happening in the city centre.