LEADING Marxists accused Labour leader Ed Miliband of “laughable” attempts to airbrush the working class from British politics yesterday.

Mr Miliband declared that restoring the quality of life for middle-class families “is the greatest challenge for our generation.”

He launched his new campaign in the viciously anti-Labour Daily Telegraph, under the banner headline Miliband: I can save middle class.

The working class was not mentioned once in Mr Miliband’s special article for the Tory paper.

Communist Party general secretary Rob Griffiths declared: “It is difficult to know which is most laughable: His socio-economic illiteracy, or his demeaning attempts to grovel to those he imagines are middle class.

“The vast majority of the population are working class, whether or not they identify themselves as such.

“Miliband should start demanding progressive policies that will benefit this vast majority at the expense of the multimillionaires.”

Mr Griffiths suggested that the Labour leader should “read and try to understand some of his father’s tremendous books on class, the state and political power in Britain.”

The Telegraph declared triumphantly that the Labour leader’s article showed he was trying to dismiss his “Red Ed” image.

Mr Miliband wrote: “Today, the British middle class is being squeezed by a cost of living crisis as never before.”

People grafting to join the middle class “find that the obstacles in their way are getting bigger,” he added.

Access to further education, good quality jobs with reliable incomes, affordable housing, stable savings and secure pensions had all been undermined.

“The current cost-of-living crisis is not just about people on tax credits, zero-hours contracts and the minimum wage,” Mr Miliband said.

“It is about millions of middle-class families who never dreamt that life would be such a struggle.”

He argued that “the greatest challenge for our generation is how to tackle a crisis in living standards that has now become a crisis of confidence for middle-class families.”

Prominent Marxist activist Lindsey German protested: “Labour is simply saying that class doesn’t really exist, apart from an underclass called scroungers and chavs.”

Ms German accused Mr Miliband of “agonising over a very small section of the population.”

She scolded him for focusing on better-off professionals who earned the top 5 or 10 per cent of incomes.

Ms German declared: “The working class is not just the people who repair Ed Miliband’s dishwasher.

“It has to include the vast majority of working people in this country, whether they are blue collar or white collar, whether in services or manufacturing.

“They are the people who produce the wealth. And they are the working class.”

“The idea that just because you have a white-collar job you are middle class will come as news to many people who work for very low wages in routine jobs where they have no control over their lives.”
rogerbagley@peoples-press.com