Trade secretary's Patricia Hewitt's claims that the middle classes are snobs about university entrance are challenged in the Express.

Hewitt had claimed many middle income earners believed working class people should become plumbers - and were failing to take into account the yawning pay gap.

However the paper compares wages and claims a plumber earns £1,346.15 a week but jobs requiring a degree earn much less.

A secondary school teacher earns £582.40 a week, an architect earns £660, a civil servant £656.70 and a journalist on a national newspaper earns £581.