Pay packets are smaller than they were in 2008 in most local authority areas in the UK, according to analysis by the Trades Union Congress, which described the findings as a “damning indictment” of the Conservatives’ economic record. The TUC, which includes 48 unions with more than five million members, said stagnating wages meant British workers were in the midst of the longest squeeze on wages since the Napoleonic era. Real terms average pay, which factors in inflation, is less than it was in 2008, the year the global financial crisis struck, in nearly two-thirds (63%) of UK local authorities, the TUC said. The union body estimates that the average UK worker would be £10,400 a year better off if real wages had grown at their pre-crisis trend – the equivalent of £200 a week. London has the highest share of what it called “wage black spots”, with real pay below 2008 levels in nearly all of the capital’s local authorities. The TUC blamed austerity imposed by the Conservatives, saying that wages had begun to grow after the 2008 global financial crash when David Cameron’s government took office in 2010. It said the nascent recovery slammed into reverse as the...