New Statesman magazine labels Ed Miliband an 'old-style Hampstead socialist' Withering analysis comes amid evidence Labour is losing its 'core vote' Party's support has plunged as much as 10 percentage points in 18 months Former Labour minister Alan Milburn slams plans to raise taxes on the rich Despair: Support for Ed Miliband has slumped as today he is attacked by left-wing magazine the New Statesman as an 'old-style Hampstead socialist' Ed Miliband is today attacked as an "old-style Hampstead socialist" and a "quasi Marxist" by the house journal of the Left amid evidence that Labour is losing even its "core vote" which backed Gordon Brown in 2010. It comes as a new analysis shows Labour's support has slumped by between eight and ten percentage points over the last 18 months, prompting mounting alarm among its MPs about the prospects of election victory. And last night there were rumours swirling at Westminster that a letter calling on Mr Miliband to go was being prepared by some Labour MPs. One source said the move was being seriously considered amid despair at his leadership, though the plot is unlikely to take off with the general election only months away and little agreement among Labour critics over who should replace Mr Miliband. In another blow to the Labour leader, former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn said the party needed more "realism" over the state of the public finances and poured scorn on the idea it could pay for its plans simply by raising taxes on the wealthy. Today, in a scathing editorial, the New Statesman, which is traditionally supportive of Labour, warns that Mr Miliband's approach is haemorrhaging support on the Left to the Greens and the Scottish National Party. The magazine says the Labour leader appears a product of his "narrow background" and demonstrates no understanding of lower middle-class aspiration. Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman, one of only two national publications to back Mr Miliband over his brother David for the Labour leadership in 2010, said he appeared "very much an old-style Hampstead socialist." "He doesn't really understand the lower middle-class or material aspiration," he writes. He doesn't understand Essex Man or Woman. Politics for him must seem at times like an extended PPE seminar: elevated talk about political economy and the good society. He adds: "Miliband has a deterministic, quasi-Marxist analysis of our present ill. The Ukip insurgency, Scottish nationalism, the hollowing out of political parties, Islamist radicalisation, the loathing and distrust of elites: all are manifestations of a failed economic model. Alan Milburn, left, with Charles Clarke: Former Cabinet minister Mr Milburn said Labour needed more "realism" over the state of the public finances and poured scorn on plans to raise taxes on the wealthy According to a devastating analysis by the Left-wing Fabian Society, there has now been a fall in support among the party's 2010 voters of four percentage points. Its general secretary, Andrew Harrop, said: "A drop like this was meant to be impossible. All through the parliament, the Labour hierarchy assumed that anyone who voted Brown in 2010 would surely stick in 2015. Well it turns out you can't take anyone for granted. Labour has only a fragile lead in a string of key marginal seats which will be wiped out if Ukip voters can be won over by the Conservatives, a poll indicated yesterday. The latest survey of Tory/Labour battlegrounds by pollster Lord Ashcroft confirmed that, by splitting the Tory vote, Ukip is on course to hand a general election victory to Ed Miliband. However, Labour's lead in the constituencies was slender, suggesting there is all to play for in next year's election. The poll indicated the Tory message of "vote Farage, get Miliband" could be effective. Lord Ashcroft said increasing numbers of voters were backing Mr Cameron as their preferred prime minister. Overall, 30 per cent were satisfied with his performance, and 29 per cent said they were dissatisfied but still preferred him to Mr Miliband. Extraordinarily, 30 per cent of Labour voters said they wanted Mr Cameron to remain in Downing Street. Just 34 per cent of Ukip voters want to see Labour in government, the poll found. Some 78 per cent of those who have currently switched from the Conservatives to Ukip want the Tories in government. Lord Ashcroft said: "The Tories can afford to lose no more than 21 seats to Labour if they are to remain the largest party." But Mr Harrop said Labour still remained best placed to win next May because of the split in the Right-wing vote caused by Ukip. One senior MP suggested that Mr Miliband should abandon Westminster, apart from for Prime Minister's Questions, and go on a tour of the country to try to revive his faltering leadership - a tactic adopted in the 1980s by then Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown. But the MP doubted that the Labour leader had the will to do so, concluding: "His confidence has gone. It's like a light's gone out. A Shadow Cabinet minister said: "Morale has never been lower ... We're all very, very concerned. The reality is that whilst we don't have a presidential system, people are thinking increasingly about who they want to be the prime minister. Former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn was critical of Labour's plans to reintroduce Gordon Brown's short-lived 50p top rate of tax if it regains power next year. Mr Milburn, the party's election co-ordinator at the 2005 election, said the 50p tax rate would be "absolutely incidental, by the way, to the state of the public finances," adding: "Let's not kid ourselves." In a recording of an event at Labour's annual conference, he said big spending plans would not be possible "in the bad times." "So all I'm saying to you as fellow party members is that we need a note of realism and we need a note of edge as we go into the next general election," he added. An abridged version of New Statesman editor Jason Cowley's withering analysis of Ed Miliband Miliband is very much an old-style Hampstead socialist. He doesn't really understand the lower middle class or material aspiration. At present, he and Labour seem trapped. His MPs sense it and the polls reflect it. Ukip is attracting support in the party's old working-class northern English heartlands and winning converts in key Home Counties swing seats that Labour would once have hoped to win. In Scotland the SNP has become the natural party of government. Miliband is losing the support of the Left (to the SNP, to the Greens) without having formed a broader coalition of a kind that defined the early Blair-Brown years. Most damaging, I think, is that he seldom seems optimistic about the country he wishes to lead. Miliband speaks too often of struggle and failure, of people as victims - and it's true that life is difficult for many. But a nation also wants to feel good about itself and to know in which direction it is moving. Miliband does not have a compelling personal story to tell the electorate, as Thatcher did about her remarkable journey from the grocer's shop in Grantham and the values that sustained her along the way or Alan Johnson does about his rise from an impoverished childhood in west London. "I went to Oxford to study PPE, worked for Gordon Brown, became a Cabinet minister and then leader of the party" does not quite do it. None of this would matter were Miliband in manner and approach not so much the product of this narrow background. Miliband's chief problem is not policy but tone. He needs to find a distinctive voice to articulate people's feelings about the present moment. And he might have to accept before long - or the electorate will force him to - that Europe" s social-democratic moment, if it ever existed, is fading into the past. Ed's poll guru parachutes in Guru: Lucy Powell was parachuted into the shadow Cabinet last night in an attempt to turn around the party's faltering efforts to win next year's election The MP who ran Ed Miliband's Labour leadership campaign was parachuted into the shadow Cabinet last night in an attempt to turn around the party's faltering efforts to win next year's election. In what appeared to be a snub to shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander, who is in charge of the campaign, Lucy Powell was brought in to a new position as his "vice chair" and shadow Cabinet Office minister. Labour officials said she would take "day-to-day control," while Mr Alexander would continue to be responsible for "strategy." The reshuffle was prompted by the resignation of shadow international development secretary Jim Murphy, who is bidding to lead the party in Scotland. To the surprise of Westminster observers, who rate her as one of the more effective Labour frontbenchers, Mary Creagh was demoted from shadow transport secretary to replace Mr Murphy. Her transport brief went to Michael Dugher, a former spin doctor for Gordon Brown who was shadow Cabinet Office minister. Labour said David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama hired at great expense by Labour to advise on the election campaign, will be visiting the UK shortly to shore up Mr Miliband. There has been growing sniping about Mr Axelrod's role, since he did not attend Labour's annual conference in September and is rumoured to have become disillusioned about his advice being ignored.