Labor will face the same fury that drove Democrats from power and handed the White House to Donald Trump if it ignores the biggest concerns of ordinary voters, senior party officials have warned.

They say sir Keir Starmer and his team turn a blind eye to the lessons of American election at their own risk. Labor must address voters’ concerns on key issues, including cost of living and immigration and not just “obscure causes”.

Former Labor minister Liam Byrne said: “The scale of President Trump’s emphatic re-election is not just a shock; This is a warning to Labor and the European left.”

A U.S.-wide survey of more than 120,000 Americans found that about nine in ten Americans were concerned about the cost of groceries, and about eight in ten were worried about the cost of housing or gasoline. There are fears Labor could be punished if they ignore the “financial worries” of ordinary Britons.

Mr Byrne said voters in the North and Midlands felt their areas had been “left behind” as the south of England became richer.

He said: “If we don’t solve this problem, we too will face the kind of populist surge that brought Trump back to power. »

Labor circles fear the party could suffer a major blow from Reform UK – led by a Brexit veteran and Trump ally. Nigel Farage – unless it addresses concerns about high levels of immigration.

Former Labor foreign minister Kim Howells warned: “The idea that you shouldn’t care how many people you let in is madness. »

He warned that Labor would ignore reform to its “extreme peril”.

And a Labor MP from a former industrial seat said: “Nigel FarageThe party is particularly dangerous for us. Those with strong memories of the miners’ strike and the most painful moments of the Thatcher era will always find it difficult to vote Conservative, but Reformers have none of that.”

Urging Labor to focus on cost of livingthe congressman said: “Democrats are about to be driven out of power because they ignored the concerns of workers who struggled to pay their bills at the end of the month. If we ignore people’s money, we worry about the wave that humiliated them Kamala Harris could sweep Keir Starmer outside Downing Street.

Deputy Leader of the Reform Party Richard Tice predicted that a democratic revolt similar to that in the United States would occur in the United Kingdom.

He said: “For too long, establishment politicians have ignored and mocked workers on both sides of the Atlantic because they were worried about immigration and the crisis. cost of living.

“Donald Trump’s victory has been a reckoning in the US and in 2029 we will see the same message in the UK as they vote for the Reform Party in record numbers.

“Work and ConservativesThe Democrats, like Democrats, have ignored normal Brits for too long and become too comfortable in their metropolitan bubble.”

Former Labor minister John Spellar said voters cared about issues such as cost of livingcrime and whether services provided by the public and private sectors were functioning properly.

He said: “The big lesson is that people want a government that works for them, respects them and doesn’t just focus on obscure causes.

“The public is impartial, but they feel they need to be listened to, and if the system doesn’t do that, they will look for someone who at least seems to be listening.”

Rachael Maskell – a Labor MP who is a leading critic of the decision to limit winter fuel payments to all but the poorest pensioners – said Labor must “heed the warning signs and ensuring that the needs of communities left behind are met now and in the future.” future”.

She said the government must “address immediate needs” and close “the inequality gap” so people can move out of poverty. A priority for her is to end the benefit cap for two children.

The scale of Mr Trump’s victory over Ms Harris surprised many commentators, as pollsters had suggested the election was on a knife’s edge.

It brought home how “shy” Conservatives” and “shy Brexiters” are reluctant to tell people who they intend to support, but they vote in large numbers.

Pollster Andrew Hawkins, who founded ComRes and now runs Whitestone Insight, said: “We don’t yet understand why and how polls have failed to show the extent of support for Donald Trump, but if politicians are attacking not only their opponents but call their supporters ‘deplorables’ or ‘trash’, they should not be surprised that insulting their opponents’ supporters makes them reluctant to admit how they will vote.

Warning against demonizing rivals, he said: “The American election shows that if you call your opponent “Hitler” and catastrophize the impact of his victory, you make open, calm discourse on the merits of each party’s policy offering impossible.

“Play the man and not the ball and you are playing blind. Twice, Donald Trump won against candidates who opposed him on obsessive left-wing issues like abortion, and twice, American voters said they wanted a president who would allow them to improve their economic situation.”

Patrick Basham, founding director of the Democracy Institute, said the “shy Trump voter” is a “very real phenomenon in American politics.”

He claimed that U.S. pollsters had failed to take into account “older working-class men and women in rural America who simply do not want to be surveyed or who, when surveyed, are hesitant to provide frank answers.