Voters let down, admits minister

Labour has lost touch with working-class voters and failed to improve their quality of life, education minister Margaret Hodge said today. She added that the party's traditional supporters felt let down and ignored.

Ms Hodge spoke out after asking young mothers in her Barking constituency why so few bothered to vote in last year's general election.

She said: "Voters felt that the quality of their lives was awful and nothing had changed since Labour came to office. Their anger was heightened by the optimism some had felt in 1997, and their subsequent disappointment."

Ms Hodge also said the women had complained of poor housing.