Smith insists government 'in touch'
Monday, 31 March 2008 12:00 AM
A senior Cabinet minister has denied that the government is out of touch with ordinary people.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith has insisted the government is listening to the British people after a junior minister said Labour had become an establishment party.
Ms Smith is due to launch a new neighbourhood policing plan with Gordon Brown today, as part of a bid to show Labour responding to the concerns of ordinary people.
Health minister Ivan Lewis yesterday said the government had become "silent on the daily realities" of life for ordinary hard-working families.
Speaking to the News of the World, the normally loyal minister said he was not criticising the prime minister.
"But we have been in government 11 years and instead of being on the side of the people, too often we simply defend the status quo, even when it is unacceptable," he said.
Mr Lewis continued: "It is right we focus on the great challenges of climate change, globalisation, security and poverty at home and abroad and the nature of public service reform.
"However, we are too often silent on the daily realities facing hard-working families."
Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Ms Smith said she disagreed with his views and thought it was "fundamentally important that we listen to the British people".
But she added: "It's always inevitable that when you're in government, you have to find ways to renew, to listen, to respond."
Mr Brown will today address Labour MPs amid a faltering poll rating.
Backbenchers told the Guardian his address to the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party was not originally on the schedule, suggesting he is responding to mounting unease among Labour MPs.
The prime minister is expected to tell backbenchers the government is on course to take the "tough decisions" demanded of it this year.
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