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Mr Embery was speaking about his new book, ‘Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class’, which was published last month. The former firefighter argued on a range of issues, including Brexit, the Labour Party has become detached from the people it was founded to represent.
Speaking to Express.co.uk Mr Embery said: “I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for 26 years.
“Labour now is very much a metropolitan middle-class very liberal very student type party.
“The old working-class element within the party, which used to be pretty dominant, has been hollowed out.
“If you look at the figures on the membership base of the Labour Party 77 percent fall into the ABC1 social category, so largely the middle-class.
“Labour now is very much a metropolitan middle-class very liberal very student type party” (Image: YOUTUBE/Triggernometry )
Sir Keir Starmer is leader of the Labour Party (Image: GETTY)
“I think that comes through in terms of the party’s ideology today, in terms of the priorities of the party and the fact that the party now often focuses on what many working-class would see as fringe issues.
“Labour does not speak for so many working-class people and I think that’s a real problem.”
In the December 2019 general election Labour lost seats to the Tories, such as Bassetlaw and Workington, which the party had held for generations.
The Conservatives’ victory in these working-class seats in the English north and midlands propelled Boris Johnson back into 10 Downing Street with a parliamentary majority.
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Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016 (Image: GETTY)
By contrast Labour suffered its worst electoral performance since 1935.
Labour went into the 2019 general election promising a second referendum on Britain’s EU membership, in which senior figures vowed to campaign for remain.
Referring to this position Mr Embery said: “I think it was a disastrous policy.
“I think it was always going to result in Labour haemorrhaging millions of working-class votes and that’s exactly what it did.
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Brexit supporters celebrate the UK’s EU exit at the end of January (Image: GETTY)
The Conservatives took a number of traditionally Labour seats at the 2019 general election (Image: GETTY)
“If you look at the data it’s pretty clear Labour lost more amongst leave supporters who had previously voted for Labour in the 2017 election than it did from remain voters.
“The idea that you could say to millions of working-class people that we though you got it wrong, and there’s not going to be any kickback from that, was completely naïve and they played a big price for it.”
After Mr Johnson’s victory the UK finally left the EU in January after a number of delays.
However, until the end of the year Britain remains in a Brexit transition period, during which it pays into the Brussels budget and is still tied to many EU rules.
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The Government is attempting to negotiate a new trade deal to replace this and has vowed to leave without an agreement unless the EU is prepared to compromise.
Mr Embery admitted he was shocked at the intensity of efforts to overturn the 2016 referendum result.
He commented: “I always felt there would be a certain amount of anguish on the part of the remain supporting establishment and that there would be elements who would try and block Brexit from going through, but even I was surprised sometimes at the intensity of that resistance and all manner of tactics that were employed.
“I genuinely think in years to come we’ll look back and think what a scandal it was.
Labour suffered its worst general election defeat since 1935 last year (Image: GETTY)
“You had this situation where you had a referendum inside the country in which 33 million people took part in good faith and people took the decision and said we want to leave the European Union.
“In a democratic society for a large part of the establishment, the political class, certain parts of the media class, big business etr, to do what they did to try to subvert that outcome was absolutely disgraceful and we shouldn’t forget what they tried to do.
“Democracies a precious thing and for a while we nearly lost it in this country and I’m glad we didn’t.”
