In Denver last week, Barack Obama ignited the hopes and dreams of working Americans by boldly showing that he was their champion and that he understood that in America today there is a tremendous desire for change.

He was unapologetic in his support for the American middle classes over the very wealthy who currently hold sway over American economic policy.

There is no doubt in my mind, that the only thing that will prevent Barack Obama from becoming the next president of the United States is prejudice. In other words, such is the desire for change in the US, if Barack Obama was white he would wipe the Republicans out.

There is a similar desire for change on both sides of the Atlantic. The economic problems facing working Americans are in many ways a mirror image of the problems that working families in the UK face.

The UK is in the grip of a credit squeeze. British families are victims of falling real incomes and rising food and energy costs. There is a shortage of affordable housing and a higher proportion of taxation falls on the lowest 90% of earners than the top ten. Since January 2008 energy prices have risen by an astonishing 38% and food prices in UK supermarkets and shops have risen by 8.3% since January.

Our representatives in Government, verge on accusing us of being unpatriotic if we dare to expect our pay to keep up with the rising cost of living, and Ministers have imposed a pay deal at half the rate of inflation for public sector workers - most of whom are natural Labour supporters. Yet Ministers do not dare criticise or act against the real culprits of our current economic problems.

The finance industry was left to its own devices and displayed such staggering irresponsibility that we are now experiencing a world economic crisis. Their attempts to drive up profits coupled with rising food and energy prices, means that the government now wants to drive down the wages of hard working families. But they never had the nerve to reign in the unrestrained excesses of the boardroom.

In the coming months many low income families are going to be forced to switch their heating off because they can’t afford to stay warm this winter. The energy companies are using the thin cover of future investments to justify their refusal to meet their social responsibilities. This heartless excuse has been swallowed hook, line and sinker by the Department of Business and Enterprise. Everybody else knows that they are blatantly profiteering and paying out huge dividends to shareholders while everyone else struggles. Yet the government stands by and does nothing.

British families desperately need a champion in the way that Barack Obama has shown himself to be a future champion for American families.

Is it David Cameron and the Tories? Certainly not –Tory instincts would not and cannot ultimately deliver what people need or want. It’s Labour’s values combined with the right policies which offer the best answers. Gordon Brown is a good, decent man with strong values, but he needs to tear off the shackles of the last New Labour to reveal the real New Labour.

A week is a long time in politics and there is still 18 months to go. I believe that voters are not turning towards Conservatives because of any fundamental ideological shifts in the electorate but they will vote Conservative at the next election unless the Labour Government sets out a radical vision for change - a change in policy not a change in Leader.

However, Gordon Brown urgently needs to show that he is on our side. The bosses of the gas and electricity companies don’t vote Labour. The heads of Shell and BP don’t vote Labour but public sector workers do vote Labour and there are a lot more of them.

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