Peter Hain will make an impassioned plea today for Labour to break with Blairism and return to its historical socialist mission if the party wins power in May.

The senior MP and close ally of leader Ed Miliband described “neoliberal orthodoxy” as the root of Britain’s economic problems on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday.

And he will argue people are “crying out” for an alternative to austerity as he launches his book Back to the Future of Socialism in Parliament this evening.

A call for Labour to defy Britain’s cuts consensus and increase public spending to spark growth tops Mr Hain’s seven-point “real Labour manifesto.”

His proposal sets him on a collision course with shadow chancellor Ed Balls’s deficit reduction plan.

But the former minister argued in his book that it’s democratic socialism and not “Bjorn again Blairites” that will deliver Labour victory in May.

He points out that Labour had “lost its soul” and five million voters by 2010 as a result of the “ideological incapacity” of the Blair era.

“New Labour took office in 1997 on a landslide vote of hope and we delivered record rises in public spending,” he writes in today’s Star.

“But then lost in 2010 on a humiliating vote of distrust and without ever really changing the basis of the system we inherited.

“That may be because of a lack of self-confidence by those preaching the socialist message.”

Mr Hain also calls for a break with “big state” socialism, saying that “old left fundamentalism which insists upon blanket nationalisation is just as absurd as neoliberal fundamentalism.”

Griffiths condemns Hain communism slur

Labour MP Peter Hain was challenged yesterday over a claim that democratic socialism had been “tarnished by association” with revolutionary communism.

The anti-apartheid campaigner’s comments were condemned by Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths.

He told the Star: “Communist parties in countries such as Italy, France, Greece, Portugal and Britain have had nothing like the record of social democratic parties when it comes to careerism, corruption and support for imperialist wars.

“Perhaps Peter Hain has also forgotten the outstanding role of the South African Communist Party in uniting people of all races in the struggle to overthrow apartheid.”