LABOUR will win the next election — but soon be engulfed by mass unrest over economic decline and falling living standards unless it radically changes direction, North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll warned on Thursday night.

At a Morning Star North East Readers’ & Supporters’ public meeting at Newcastle’s Tyneside Irish Centre, Mr Driscoll slammed the cruelty and economic blindness of policies like retaining the two-child benefit cap, saying it stored up poverty and misery that would cost communities for generations.

And a Labour Party that ordered MPs not to stand on picket lines, and even disciplined those like Sam Tarry who do so, would soon find itself facing disaffiliation moves from trade unions whose wave of industrial action will continue when Labour refuses to invest in public services and bankrupt councils, he argued.