THE electoral defeat last week shows that what Labour is doing “isn’t working and needs to change,” Angela Rayner told the CWU conference in Bournemouth today.

The MP for Ashton-Under-Lyme had to make her way through a throng of photographers at the conference amid speculation over the future leadership of Labour and Ms Rayner’s potential role.

Welcoming her to the stage just hours before the union would debate its future relationship with the party, general secretary Dave Ward paid tribute to her efforts to steer the Employment Rights Bill through Parliament.

Immediately addressing Labour’s drubbing across Britain last week, she said: “It’s clear what we’re doing isn’t working, and it needs to change.

“The cost of living is the top issue for voters of all parties. People have turned to populists and nationalists because we have not done enough to fix it.

“Working-class people are paying the price for decisions that they didn’t make.

“It’s no wonder that people across the UK feel that the system is rigged against them.”

In a swipe at the ailing Labour leader, she said: “The Prime Minister today acknowledged the frustration that was expressed last week, but we will be judged on our actions and not just our words.

“I’m proud of our Labour values, but they’re not enough if we do not have a plan to put them into practice.

“It’s no good acknowledging the mistakes if they are not put right.

“We must make politics work for ordinary people, with an economic agenda to make people better off, change how we run our party and how we do politics.

“Labour exists to make working people better off, and that’s not happening fast enough. That needs to change now.”