Labour need to get outside the "Westminster bubble" and start reconnecting with day-to-day concerns of voters on the doorstep, a senior backbencher has warned.
Margaret Hodge, who chairs the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee, expressed concern at the growing number of MPs who had little or no experience of working outside politics and who struggled to understand the lives of those they were supposed to represent.
Although she did not mention Ed Miliband by name, her comments echo recent criticisms of the Labour leader who has spent almost his entire career in politics and who has been accused of being out-of-touch with voters.
Speaking to the Progress think tank at Westminster, Mr Hodge said: "I do think that the professionalisation of politics has driven a wedge between us and those we seek to serve. This growing band of MPs who have little experience of life outside politics makes us different from our voters and makes it more difficult to understand others' lives.
"If you've not done much outside politics, you think that what happens in the Westminster bubble is all that matters. So the focus is on who is up and who is down, how everybody performed at PMQs and what the sketch writers are saying. I don't think my constituents in Barking and Dagenham give a toss about those things."
Mrs Hodge also criticised the "top down" approach where the party centrally tried to dictate what was happening on the ground in individual constituencies.
"This week we may be told by the powers that be we are going to campaign on the NHS, next week on the cost of living and the following on small businesses," she said. "It's a top-down approach to politics that is simply not relevant to most voters, in their homes, in their streets or in their neighbourhoods."
Meanwhile, Labour have extended their poll lead over Conservatives to five points, according to Lord Ashcroft's weekly poll. The party is on 32 per cent (up two points since last week), Conservatives on 27 per cent (down two), Ukip on 18 per cent (up two), Liberal Democrats on seven per cent (down two) and Greens on seven per cent (unchanged).
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