Labour donor John Mills has warned the party is lacking a “credible” economic policy
Labour donor John Mills has warned Jeremy Corbyn’s party faces dramatic electoral losses without a more fleshed out economic policy to lure support.
Speaking at the Labour party conference in Liverpool today, Mills said the party is failing to develop policies to tackle low wage growth following a leadership contest focused on “battles largely irrelevant to what most people in the country are really concerned about”.
And the JML founder – who also launched the Labour Leave campaign – said the party can heal divides following this summer’s EU referendum by looking at tools including exchange rate policy and monetary policy to tackle static incomes.
“The one thing that Brexit showed more than anything else was the huge gulf between those who have benefited from globalisation and those who haven’t,” Mills said.
“Unless the party can find some way of contacting these people its future really is pretty dim.”
Mills has previously forecast that Labour could lose as many as 100 seats at the next general election, and said today the party is losing supporters in both its working class heartlands and across London and the South East.
Alongside more substantial economic policy, he added that Labour must consider how it presents itself to include themes like greater patriotism in its messaging and win back supporters.
“If the Labour party just goes on without any sort of credible economic policy and not speaking to people in the sorts of ways we have been talking about, then the situation is very grim,” he said.