LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer risks destroying the party, prominent back-bench MP Jon Cruddas has said this week.

In a book published to mark the centenary of the election of the first Labour government, Mr Cruddas launched a coruscating critique of Sir Keir.

“Little ties Starmer to the ethical and spiritual concerns of Labour’s early founders,” he wrote.

“His approach to economics does not appear to be grounded in any specific theoretical understanding of inequality, material justice and welfare distribution.”  

Despite his past as a human rights lawyer, he shows no interest “in questions of liberty and freedom,” Mr Cruddas said.

Mr Cruddas — once a policy adviser to Tony Blair and associated with “blue Labour” trends —  pointed out that “it is difficult to identify the purpose of a future Starmer government.”

“Labour appears to be content for the coming election to amount to a referendum on the performance of the governing Conservatives rather than a choice between competing visions of politics and justice,” he said.

He also denounced the Labour leader for junking the 10 policy pledges influenced by former leader Jeremy Corbyn on which he won office and for overseeing “a brutal centralisation of power on strictly factional lines and the removal of any signs of independent thought from prospective Labour candidates.”

The Dagenham MP warned that unless the party changes course — a development of which there is no present sign — “a party of labour could be destroyed by victory.”

Responding, a party spokesman said: “Keir Starmer has driven change throughout his entire career. 

“With his leadership, the next Labour government will be mission focused on moving our country forward, ending the cost-of-living crisis, taking back our streets and getting the NHS back on its feet.”