Labour veteran John Prescott has launched a blistering attack on Ed Miliband’s failed “presidential-type” General Election campaign.
The former deputy prime minister poured scorn on the Labour leader’s “Hell, yes, I’m tough” boast and said the party had paid the price for failing to defend the economic record of the last Labour government in the last parliament.
Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Lord Prescott said it had been a “bloody disastrous” result for the party as David Cameron secured the first outright majority for the Conservatives since 1992.
“We fought a presidential-type election based on computers, charts, focus groups and even the American language – Hell yes? Hell no!” he wrote.
“It was designed to get 35% of the electorate while Cameron focused on getting more than 50% of the seats! And he won.”
However he said the real roots of their defeat lay in a “stupid” failure to confront Conservative claims in the aftermath of the 2010 General Election that the previous Labour government had “wrecked” the economy.
Instead, he said the contenders in the lengthy leadership contest which followed the resignation of Gordon Brown had concentrated their efforts on distancing themselves from the party’s record in government.
“The Tories and Lib Dems worked tirelessly to sow the seeds of a myth which grew into a publicly accepted ‘fact’. As President Clinton said ‘It’s the economy stupid’. And we were stupid not to defend it!
“The global recession was caused by the greed of bankers and only Gordon Brown’s rescue plan saved the banks and our economy from total global collapse.
“I said to both Eds, both personally and in the Parliamentary Labour Party, that it was vital we nailed these Tory lies. But I was told ‘We want to focus on the future, John, not the past’.
“I warned them if we didn’t defend the past we wouldn’t have a future. This General Election has depressingly proved that.”
In a comment likely to be seen as a further sideswipe at Mr Miliband, he added: “Our next leader needs to have the passion, the guts and ability to appeal to take on the Tories and appeal to town and country, North and South.”