Cruddas: 'Labour is paralysed by defeatism'

Labour is "paralysed by defeatism" and no longer empathises with its core supporters, leading backbencher Jon Cruddas warned the party.

With just weeks to go until the autumn party conference, he attacked Labour's lack of radicalism and warned of heavy defeat at the next General Election.

Mr Cruddas said many in the party felt "despair", had lost their optimism and were "meekly accepting" an imminent Tory landslide.

The Dagenham MP asked: "What does Labour stand for any more?

"There are plenty of initiatives and announcements, but no sense of animating purpose - and thus, as yet, no compelling case for re-election."

In a speech to the left-wing pressure group Compass last night he called for "tax justice" including the index-linking of benefits, pensions and the minimum wage.

He also demanded a "graduate solidarity tax" and new windfall and transaction taxes, as well as resetting capital gains taxes.

And in a sign of frustration among Labour MPs at the failure to successfully and consistently attack the Tories he said: "For me the question is why can we not lay a glove on them? We are mute.

"I would suggest it is because we have lost our language, our empathy, our generosity; because we have retreated into a philosophical framework of the right."

Mr Cruddas said the parliamentary Labour Party was "dazed and disorientated" and stressed his comments were not merely part of an internal debate but about protecting society from the Tories.

He added: "This is about protecting the most vulnerable through proudly defending a notion of a modern social democracy.

"It is only be returning to our traditions, our language and our radicalism that we can confront this very dangerous force."