The government will drop Labour's proposed law requiring councils to tackle social deprivation, equalities minister Theresa May has said.

Mrs May described the clause as a "politically motivated target" which could have skewed public funding.

About 90% of the Equality Act came into force in October, the rest is being reviewed by the government.

Labour's Yvette Cooper said the move was a "licence to abandon the hardest pressed in society".

The "social-economic duty", part of predecessor Harriet Harman's Equalities Bill, had been opposed by the Tories in opposition.

The law gives public bodies in England and Wales, including councils and health authorities, a new social-economic duty.

For example, health trusts would be required to target services, such as stop-smoking clinics, at people in deprived areas - where smoking rates tend to be higher.

Education authorities would be expected to come up with policies which prevent children from poorer backgrounds from missing out on places at the best schools.

And she said the right to request flexible working would be extended to everyone - not just parents and carers.

But she did not confirm whether the government would go ahead with Labour's plans to require employers to disclose whether they pay women as much as men. She said there would be an announcement on that in the future - but she said the pay gap for full-time women employees remained at over 12%.

Equality campaigners the Fawcett Society said failing to bring in the powers would be "tantamount to endorsing the shocking gender pay gap".