Labour 'must move left to win back grassroots'

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will be warned today that Labour needs a dramatic change in direction and appeal to its grassroots supporters if it is to avoid defeat at the next general election.

Derek Simpson, the general secretary of the giant Amicus trade union, will urge the party to adopt strong new policies defending workers' rights and family life or face the prospect of losing power to David Cameron's resurgent Conservative Party.

He will make the call in a keynote speech at today's conference of Compass, the left-wing pressure group which is drawing up an "alternative manifesto" urging the party to shift away from New Labour policies.

The group has already challenged the Labour leadership to turn the minimum wage, which is now £5.05, into a "living wage" of more than £7 an hour, and it aims to create a vision of the "good life" that can be harnessed by the left. More than 1,000 people have registered for the event in Westminster, which is being held as a memorial to the former foreign secretary Robin Cook.

Blairites such as the Labour Party chairman Hazel Blears and Brownites including the Treasury minister and former chief economic adviser Ed Balls will be among 690 speakers at the conference, which will play a key role in shaping the alternative manifesto, due to be published in the autumn.

Mr Simpson, whose union is in talks with the Transport and General Workers' Union aimed at creating a powerful super-union that would wield massive influence within Labour, will warn that the union movement needs to provide an alternative voice for party activists excluded from policy-making.

Mr Simpson is expected to say: "Labour will lose unless it recognises the deep concerns of its core supporters. Without a serious change in direction, drawing away from the business agenda towards an agenda that recognises people's desire to be safe and secure and to be able to have a good quality of life, we will definitely lose."

He will say that Labour must harness quality of life policies such as family-friendly working, and single-issue politics such as the environmental and anti-globalisation movements.

He will argue that the Labour leadership has "lost the plot'', allowing David Cameron to gain support for speaking the language of a liberal social reformer, and must counter "caring conservatism" as a "wolf in sheep's clothing''.

The call came as Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, urged Mr Brown to call a snap general election to gain a fresh mandate as soon as he takes over power from Mr Blair.

Mr Livingstone told GMTV that the Opposition and the press could undermine Mr Blair's premiership if he tried to serve Labour's full parliamentary term.

He also called for Labour to ditch the "virtually worthless" post of deputy leader.

Mr Livingstone said: "The one bit of advice I'm giving is that when Tony Blair does go and Gordon Brown takes over - as he will, for all the flim-flam in the papers - my advice to Gordon would be: go for the immediate general election, renew our mandate."