Harriet Harman: Voters relieved at election loss

Many Labour supporters were relieved the party did not win the election, acting leader Harriet Harman has said.

She said people lacked confidence in Labour's leadership abilities and economic credibility, and felt it had the "wrong message".

Labour ended up with 232 seats, suffering heavy losses in Scotland and failing to make big gains elsewhere.

A Labour leadership contest is under way, with the party's MPs at a hustings with the five candidates on Monday.

The hopefuls need to secure the support of at least 35 Labour MPs to enter the official ballot, which will be decided on a "one member one vote" basis.

The new Labour leader and deputy leader will be announced in September, ahead of the party's autumn conference.

Ms Harman's frank assessment of Labour's poor electoral performance came in an interview with The Independent newspaper., external

She said: "Sometimes after an election, you get a sense that people think 'Oh my God, that is terrible, what a disaster.' A lot of people felt that because we got nearly 40,000 new party members who were very disappointed.

"But there is an even greater number of people, even though they were not enthusiastic about David Cameron or the Tories, who feel relieved that we are not in government.

"We have got to address it. It was not a blip."

The acting leader has commissioned a review, by Gordon Brown's former pollster Deborah Mattinson, into what went wrong.

It will assess the performance of Ed Miliband, who resigned as leader in the wake of the party's poor performance, as well as Labour's economic credibility.

"The two combined together. People tend to like a leader they feel is economically competent," Ms Harman said in an apparent swipe at Mr Miliband.

As part of its election campaign Labour held six million conversations with voters across the UK - something which was hailed by Mr Miliband on the eve of the election.

But Ms Harman said many voters felt its message was not relevant to them, saying it was seen as on the side of "people on benefits" and not those who "work hard".

"It doesn't matter how many leaflets you deliver if the message is not right," she added.

The interim leader also cautioned the party against being "defensive" and trying to "paper over the cracks", saying it had to "face up to the truth of what people are saying".

"When you change the captain of the ship, you should look at the direction it is going in," she said.

Looking to the future, Ms Harman said Labour must choose a leader who can connect with voters in 2020 - when the next general election will be held, rather than one who makes party members "feel glowing about our principles and values.

The winners of elections for the Labour leader and deputy leader posts will be announced ahead of the party's conference in September.

Ms Harman's comments come after former Business Secretary Lord Mandelson criticised Labour for failing to devise a credible strategy for decentralising power to northern England.

The Labour peer said the lack of an alternative to Chancellor George Osborne's Northern Powerhouse was a "huge political mistake".