Professor Marmot remained optimistic about the capacity of government to tackle the problem of health inequalities. "We can actually do this, we can figure out what we need to lead a healthy life. We know that that is unequally distributed throughout society and we can make the policy choices to change that," he said.

"It's not a lever that the secretary of state for health has in his hands, but it is a lever that government has in its hands," he said.

Marmot, who has been one of the world's leading researchers on health inequalities for the last 20 years and chairs the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, suggested three priorities for a UK government strategy were: investment in the early years agenda; a new focus on the health impacts of the workplace; and reducing inequalities in educational outcomes, about which he was outspoken.

"We know how important education is. We know how as a country we're doing miserably on education… At the very top our educational performance is not bad, but it's a gradient: the lower your socio-economic background, the worse you will do. So we're failing the country miserably and it's contributing to health inequalities," he said.

Responding to Professor Marmot's comments at the discussion, "The Future Strategy for Health Inequalities We Need" on March 14th, Peter Kellner, president of YouGov, and Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, suggested ideas for the political strategy a focus on health inequalities required.

Calling for a new government story about health, Katwala suggested Labour adopt a "non-health manifesto for a healthy nation" at the next election.

For reports of each the seminars held in this series, see Fabian Health Inequalities Forum.

To discuss Fabian work in this area contact Tim Gore.

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