‘Core voters have quit party’

LABOUR has lost the working class vote because the party does not understand the “deep vein of patriotism” which runs through British families, says a leading trade unionist, writes Camilla Tominey.

Despite its success at the election, Labour “remains rife with infighting” and unless the hard Left reaches out to moderates, “internal warfare” will stop the Party from becoming a viable opposition, said Gerard Coyne, Unite’s former West Midlands general secretary.

Mr Coyne, who was last week sacked by Unite boss Len McCluskey after challenging him for the leadership in April, said Labour’s 40 per cent vote share was “not enough”. The Labour Party member said: “That result was secured against the worst Conservative campaign in living memory, and during the first election since the 1970s in which it was a two-party contest in England and Wales.

“For all Labour’s unforeseen success, its working class base is eroding alarmingly.”

He said “too many” Labour voters do not like Mr Corbyn’s opposition to Trident and “every military action in which British troops were involved since 1945”. He added: “Labour currently doesn’t understand the deep vein of patriotism running through most working class families.”

Meanwhile, the Centre for Policy Studies said Labour’s manifesto plan to end tuition fees would add 2.8 per cent to the basic rate of income tax – disadvantaging the poor and nongraduates who earn £9,500 less than students on average.

The report quoted Institute for Fiscal Studies figures, which claimed Labour would have to borrow £150billion more than the Tories over the course of a Parliament to fund their pledges.