Labour Party democracy campaigners warned Ed Miliband at the weekend that bold policies are needed to face a fierce new economic storm threatening Britain.

Continuing to embrace cuts and austerity risks electoral disaster, declared activists attending the AGM of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD).

But leading leftwingers were divided over the Labour leader’s performance and how to rebuild trade union influence in the party following his attack on the union link.

A proposal for discussions on establishing a new “trade union party” to work as an affiliated party alongside Labour was referred back to the executive of CLPD amid sharp differences of view.

Labour national executive member Christine Shawcroft told of her deep frustration with support for cuts and austerity by Mr Miliband and other party leaders.

Ms Shawcroft revealed how she had repeatedly challenged Mr Miliband at Labour executive meetings about the party’s economic policies.

“And he just says: ‘We have to be credible Christine, we need economic credibility’.”

She asked the activists gathered at the London meeting: “Where is Ed’s poll lead?

“If he was 20 per cent ahead in the polls, I might accept that he has got a point and that he knows what he is doing.”

Ms Shawcroft emphasised: “We have got to have some kind of change.”

She lambasted the majority of Labour MPs for being out of touch, declaring: “They just have no idea of how people live and what these cuts mean.”

Fellow Labour executive member Ken Livingstone also called for a break with austerity and warned that Britain was facing “a potential economic disaster” after the 2015 election because of the effects of Prime Minister David Cameron’s policies.

But Mr Livingstone added: “In my dealings with Ed Miliband, I have been incredibly impressed.”

The only two Labour leaders he had “trusted with my life” were Mr Miliband and the late John Smith.

“Uber-Blairites” were still running around trying to undermine Mr Miliband, he said.

And the four billionaires who owned 70 per cent of Britain’s newspapers were going to mount “a vicious campaign” to demonise the Labour leader.

Mr Livingstone urged a firm clampdown on tax evasion by big companies, and an 18-month freeze on fares and rents in addition to the proposed freeze on energy prices.

Left MP Kelvin Hopkins told how he was delayed among train passengers packed like sardines near St Pancras and the whole carriage had broken into applause when somebody shouted: “Renationalise the railways without compensation!”
Mr Hopkins urged bolder policies such as massive building of council housing and public ownership of railways, energy and water.

Many people talked about socialism as an idea in the past — yet capitalism had come close to collapse in 2008.

Mr Hopkins warned that another serious economic crisis was now looming following the current “boomlet” driven by the housing bubble and quantitative easing.
“Socialism is the future,” he proclaimed.

“We have to be optimistic. We have to tell our young people that there is a way of running the world for the better,” Mr Hopkins said.

Warm tributes were paid at the CLPD meeting to deceased activists Tony Benn, Bob Crow and Jim Mortimer.