LABOUR’S Jon Cruddas has blasted the leadership for rejecting bold reforms in favour of “cynical nuggets of policy” designed to appeal to the press and focus groups.

The policy chief warned that the top of the party wields a “profound dead hand at the centre” that blocks plans.

A recording, obtained by the Sunday Times and published yesterday, of the head of the party’s policy review made at a meeting of the Compass group captured him attacking recently announced Labour plans to cut jobseeker’s allowance for 18 to 21-year-olds as “punitive.”