THE market is not king and there is such a thing as society, Ruth Davidson has insisted, as she argued that more should be done to address concerns over so-called “fat cat pay”.

Speaking at a poverty summit in London, the Scottish Conservative leader stressed that she wanted to provide a more thoughtful and nuanced approach to tackling inequality compared to the traditional right-wing view.

She claimed the Tories were now approaching the issue of tackling poverty in a deeper and more thoughtful way; “one that is now trying to see beyond the easy simplicities of the past and move to a better, more nuanced understanding…”.

In a speech that will raise eyebrows among some Conservative supporters, Ms Davidson emphasised the “resentment and anger” bred by the difference between the salaries of executives and ordinary workers.

And she said: “We are individuals. The State doesn't have all the answers. The market is not king. There is such a thing as society and Government can be a force for good.”

She pointed to how a FTSE 100 company chief was now paid 183 times more than the average employee; in 1998 it was 47 times.

Last month, campaigners highlighted “fat cat Tuesday” which revealed that by January 5 top bosses had earned more than the average worker would do for the whole year.

Last year, the TUC published a report called a Culture of Excess and called for ordinary workers to be placed on remuneration committees to bring a “wider perspective” to executive pay.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats supported the idea in their election manifestos but the Conservatives did not.

In 2012, Mr Cameron launched an attack on “crony capitalism” and top executives “filling their boots”; a year later new rules came into effect, forcing listed companies to give shareholders a binding vote on directors' pay.

Last year, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that he was in favour of a national “maximum wage” to limit executive pay.

While Ms Davidson dismissed as confusing and bureaucratic the idea of capping executive pay to a certain multiplier of the lowest paid in a company, she argued that consideration should be given to aligning reward packages to a firm’s financial and non-financial performance.

“Not just based on profit margins but also on how engaged employees are and how workforce development is improved; publishing the pay gap, having employees on the remuneration committee," she said.

“I don't really think people resent the fact that a chief executive gets paid well or is the highest earner in an organisation, they do resent it when they see CEOs cashing in hundreds of thousands in the bank no matter whether the company they run is going up in the markets or going down the pan.

“They resent it when record bonuses are paid to the boardroom when members of the workforce are laid off or facing a pay freeze,” she declared.

Ms Davidson used her speech at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation/Prospect magazine poverty lecture to announce that more free childcare for one and two-year-olds from the poorest backgrounds would be included in her party’s Holyrood manifesto.

She explained the policy would help address inequality at an earlier stage than the Scottish Government's plan to double free childcare for all three and four-year-olds during the next parliament.

"Given the gap that opens up among children from poor and wealthy homes before the age of three, we think action is required earlier,” she said.

The Scottish Tory leader also backed more funding for further education colleges, saying she rejected the "snobbish" attitude which put higher education before FE colleges.

She denounced the SNP Government’s funding of free tuition fees at university being paid for by cutting 152,000 FE places.

"Classic SNP,” insisted Ms Davidson, “a middle class freebie, tarted up as an egalitarian policy, slashing funds for less high profile areas and slaps on the back all round.”