Labour 'must admit its mistakes'

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The government must admit it has made mistakes if it wants to reconnect with the voting public, Cabinet minister John Denham has said.

The skills and innovation secretary said Labour's reluctance to acknowledge failings has led to public scepticism.

If ministers did not acknowledge errors the public would not believe they would get it right in the future, he said.

An opinion poll has put the Tories 26% ahead of Labour, whose support fell to its the lowest on record at just 23%.

The YouGov survey for the Sun newspaper suggested David Cameron's opposition had the support of almost half of voters (49%).

However, other recent polls have suggested the gap is smaller.

10p tax row

Mr Denham's comments follow those of former Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who said the government's scrapping of the 10p tax rate was "a very big mistake".

Mr Mandelson warned Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday against abandoning one of the key tenets of New Labour - helping the poor.

"If you lose one tenet then the whole edifice starts looking shaky and that's what's happened," he told BBC News.

The abolition of the lowest rate of income tax came into effect last month, alongside a reduction in the basic rate of income tax from 22p to 20p and increases in child benefit and tax credits.

Following an outcry the government has said it will outline a compensation package for pensioners aged 60 to 64 and low earners without children before this autumn's pre-Budget report.

The Labour Party suffered its worst local council results in at least 40 years last week, losing 331 councillors and key councils like Reading.