USDAW activists pressed leading Labour figures yesterday to return the party to its roots at a packed fringe on day one of the shopworkers union conference.

Shadow ministers faced tough questions over what Labour will do differently if the party wins next year’s general election. 

Manchester delegate, McVitie’s union convener Kevin Dolan said Labour needed to be unashamed of its working-class and trade-union heritage.

He said: “When I hear the Tories say about Labour ‘the trade unions are you paymasters,’ I say you should be proud of that.

“It is nothing to be ashamed of to be a proud member of trade union movement, as I am.”

North East delegate Pat Buttle drew laughter and applause when she said: “I don’t want to hear this nonsense of carrying out the cuts.

“Ordinary people are not relating to Labour at the moment.”

A former Labour local councillor for 24 years, she has lived on a council estate for 50 years. She said: “There is no middle class. If you work and earn a wage you are working class.”

However, shadow minister for home affairs David Hanson MP said: “I wouldn’t be alive without the NHS and I understand the need for working-class representation.

“But we have people from middle-class background in Labour too. It is how we vote in Parliament that counts and what we promise for the future.”

The Labour panel would not be drawn on whether the party would repeal anti-trade-union laws but insisted they would fight on issues of employment rights, helping the low paid and tackling the need for foodbanks.

Shadow minister for public health Luciana Berger raised the issue of “skipping” — where people wait for supermarkets to throw out excess food. Labelling the Tory-led government a “disgrace” for the cuts, driving people to such desperate acts, she added: “I don’t think under a Labour government we would allow a situation where 800,000 people are reliant of foodbanks.”

Usdaw general secretary John Hannett said: “No-one from the government has called us and asked our union’s opinion on the effects of government policies. A Labour government would listen.”