Labour has 'lost touch' with core voters

A senior union leader has said that Labour has "clearly lost touch" with millions of its core voters.

Joint unite general secretary Derek Simpson called for the party to change its direction to win back support.

Simpson was speaking ahead of next weekend's national policy forum, where unions are expected to set out a number of demands including extending the minimum wage and allowing workers to take supportive strike action.

The Sunday Times reported that unions were considering removing their support for the prime minister if Gordon Brown refuses to compromise on strike laws.

But Simpson said that secondary picketing was not a "red line issue" for the unions.

"If you look at the decline of Labour after 1997, those who argue that New Labour and Blairism is a success and should be pushed more and more have actually seen Labour decline more and more," he said.

"There is therefore a clear indication if anybody looks at the evidence that a change in course is absolutely fundamental.

"You can't keep feeding the patient the same medicine if the patient keeps getting worse and worse.

"Labour has clearly lost touch with millions of core Labour voters. It has to do something to reverse that and continuing to do the very things that they were doing during the loss doesn't appear to me to be very sensible."

He dismissed claims that unions would "buy" Labour policies through their financial contributions.

"We are part of the Labour Party, we are affiliated to the Labour Party, but we don't buy policies, we actually debate these things - that's a process that quite democratically takes place within the Labour Party," he said.

"I think they should have our policies, but not because we are buying them."

Poll

Simpson's comments come as a poll in the Independent on Sunday put Labour more than 20 points behind the Conservatives.

The ComRes survey put the Tories up one point on last month on 45 per cent with Labour down two on 24 per cent and the Liberal Democrats down a point on 16 per cent.

But work and pensions secretary James Purnell called on Labour MPs to "pick themselves up off the floor"

"They should come up with the right policies and they should campaign on them," he told BBC1's Andrew Marr show.

"I profoundly believe that Britain is a better country today than it was 11 years ago. The thing that we need to convince people of is that we have the right approach to make it better for the next 10 years.

"I think that's the test which the Conservatives have failed - it's not clear what their policy is for the next few years.

"They have a good diagnosis but they have no answer and that is going to be the contrast at the next election.

"I think they are still very confused about where they want to go. We need to convince people we have the right approach for the next 10 years."