Sir Keir Starmer needs to show that he "understands what working class people are going through" in places like County Durham if Labour is to win the so-called Red Wall back, a former North East MP has said.
Laura Pidcock, who lost her North West Durham seat in 2019, said the party needed to offer more of a "strong and aggressive" opposition to Boris Johnson.
Ms Pidcock, who sensationally quit Labour's governing body the National Executive Committee last week, said she would also like to see Sir Keir offering "radical" policies on the cost of living crisis.
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The ex-MP resigned from the NEC 24 hours after a motion to have the parliamentary whip reinstated to Jeremy Corbyn was defeated.
Outlining her reasons for resigning, Ms Pidock said: "What I very quickly found was the direction that the leader of the Labour Party and other people who hold positions of power in the party, were taking us on a trajectory that I was really uncomfortable with."
She told the Northern Agenda podcast that policy "rollbacks" and the party leadership's "reluctance" to talk openly about nationalisation as a means to address issues like the energy crisis forced her to consider her position.
"To see that real reluctance to act, that does really worry me in terms of policy, because in the state that we're in, you can't tinker around the edges", she said.
Asked to respond to Sir Keir consistently polling well among voters this year, Ms Pidcock said: "Well, the prime minister couldn't be worse, could he.
"Boris Johnson and this government have handled this crisis, the pandemic and the cost of living crisis absolutely disastrously."
She added: "I think that the Labour Party haven't been a vociferous enough opposition.
"Labour needs to show that they are firmly on the side of working class people
"The kind of the distance between the Labour Party and working class people has been over not just a general election cycle, but over decades.
"I think in order to connect again there needs to be a proper plan around our communities and I'd like to see Keir Starmer coming to County Durham again to talk about and show that he understands just exactly what working class people are going through."
Asked if she would be making the case for Labour on the doorsteps in County Durham as a candidate at the next election, she said: "I think I've got a bit I thinking to do before I make any kind of commitment."
