Last week, John Hutton gave the opening speech in Progress' Progressive Challenge series, in which he argued that 'rather than questioning whether high salaries are morally justified, we should celebrate the fact that people can be enormously successful in this country.'

This week, we will be publishing a number of response articles, exclusive to Progress Online. Today's contributions come from Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough Univeristy, and the Labour blogger Luke Akehurst.

'Hutton’s ‘progressive individualism’ thus represents a dead end for those committed to the eradication of child poverty. It also offers a picture of a society that I, for one, do not want to live in. Successive British Social Attitudes Surveys, which reveal that the public appear to be more affronted by the levels of incomes at the top than the bottom, suggest that I am not alone.' - Ruth Lister >

'If anything, aspirational views are stronger amongst Labour's core working class supporters - who want a better material future for themselves and their children - than amongst more middle class voters who are already comfortably off and often want to pull up the drawbridge of opportunity behind them.' - Luke Akehurst >

Tomorrow: Derek Draper and Alex Kemp.