McFadden: Labour has won back working class vote

Sir Keir has appointed a cabinet broadly in line with the general population in terms of gender, ethnicity and class, with 92% of ministers educated at comprehensive schools.

Mr McFadden suggested that having people from working class backgrounds in power would help keep them grounded.

“It’s not a qualification for leadership itself… but I do think it’s notable, particularly in this country where so many of the leading jobs in the country, certainly in the professions, are not going to people like that,” he said.

“If you look around the country at who wields influence and who has got the key jobs in the UK you can’t deny this still matters.

“I think it’s at least notable, and I hope it will help guide the politicians around that table — remembering where they came from and trying to do things for people from similar backgrounds to their own.”

With two-thirds of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss’ cabinets being privately-educated, in comparison to 6% of the UK population, Mr Robinson pressed Mr McFadden on whether he felt “a governing class has been defeated”.

Mr McFadden responded there was “no harm in breaking things open a little bit” by getting away from “group-think” of “a pretty small number” of people who all attended the same elite private schools and universities.

Political Thinking with Nick Robinson: The Pat McFadden In Power One will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 13 July at 17:30 here.