Why Labour lost: Internal party documents leaked to the BBC show that voters didn’t trust Labour on the economy and thought Ed Miliband was weaker than David Cameron
Labour failed to win last year's General Election because voters didn't trust the party with the economy and thought Ed Miliband was a weaker leader than Prime Minister David Cameron, according to internal Labour party documents revealed this afternoon by the BBC.
Then-interim Labour leader Harriet Harman commissioned a post-mortem last May, saying the party needed a "forensic, honest examination of where it went wrong" in order to regain the trust of the electorate.
Former Labour deputy leader Margaret Beckett completed the report in November, but its contents have yet to be released, fuelling speculation that its publication is being held back to protect the reputation of far-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
But the BBC, which claims to have seen the report, said today that the documents do not blame "left wing" policies for the party's electoral failure.
Instead, according to the BBC, the report says a "failure to shake off the myth" that Labour "were responsible for the financial crash and failure to build trust in the economy" was among the top reasons for the party's poor results.
The documents also reportedly point to an "inability to deal with issues of 'connection' in particular failure to communicate on benefits and immigration" and a "fear of the SNP propping up a minority Labour government".
Beckett also reportedly concluded that voters judged Ed Miliband was not "as strong a leader as David Cameron".
Labour is likely to publish the report on Tuesday, according to the BBC.