LABOUR is so “out of touch,” the party struggled to find a single minimum-wage worker to meet Ed Miliband, an aide to a former leader revealed yesterday.

The astonishing claim by Arnie Graf, the former Barack Obama adviser behind Mr Miliband’s “street fighter” election strategy, sparked renewed soul-searching over the party’s future.

Deputy leadership candidate Angela Eagle told the Star that some officials did operate “in a bubble” and called for members to be given more power over campaigns.

In his article for the LabourList website, Mr Graf told how the press had been invited to report on a meeting between Mr Miliband and workers to highlight the party’s pledge to tackle low pay.

“There was only one problem,” he explained. “No-one had been able to locate a minimum wage worker for Ed to talk with.”With the area organiser overwhelmed with other tasks, Mr Graf stepped in and found a struggling single mum through local contacts he had made.

The event, believed to be a meeting at a cafe in Bristol in November 2013, eventually went off without causing embarrassment.

But Mr Graf said it was a symptom of the party’s “corporate leadership.”In a scathing conclusion, he wrote: “How could it be that the Labour Party, supposedly the party of working people, was not in relationship with a single minimum-wage worker? It was stunning!”

During the general election campaign, Ms Eagle undertook a tour of workplaces across Britain alongside Labour’s 14 affiliated unions.

The shadow leader of the Commons said the unions could have found a worker for Mr Miliband to meet with.

Asked if she recognised Mr Graf’s claim that people in the party were out of touch, she said: “I think some of them probably were, because you get in a bubble organising things. Others weren’t.”

“His comments about the party being present in communities up and down the country is the key thing and, as deputy leader, I’d want to make sure we go back to those basics.”

Responding to Mr Graf’s comments, fellow deputy leadership candidate Tom Watson tweeted: “This is what I’ve been talking about at every meeting since May 7.”