In a significant number of people, both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes progress to the development of vascular complications and ultimately premature death. Inequalities in the access to and delivery of healthcare can have an adverse effect on people with diabetes and can influence the speed with which this happens. The health inequalities that exist in developed countries are of a quite different scale to those in the low- and middle-income countries; nonetheless these health inequalities and their impact on health are real and distressing. In this article, the interplay between diabetes and socio-economic status is described in the context of the healthcare system of a North European country – the UK.