It is clear that the country cannot go on as it is. The overwhelming majority of hard-working people believe that they are contributing more but receiving less.

Everywhere there is a squeeze on people's living standards.

We need a clean break. Our objective must be to build a new kind of economy - one which works for working people and the only sure way of doing this is from the bottom up. An economy which works for working people works for Britain.

In order to build such an economy, we need a Labour Party which is truly representative of all the people in our country who work hard and play by the rules but whose lives are increasingly difficult.

I firmly believe that a part of this achieving this requires us to ensure that our elected MPs, councillors and MEPs come from the most diverse backgrounds possible.

There is a growing perception among the public that the country is run by a closed circle of people which is not easy to break into, whether it be the banks, Parliament, the Civil Service and even - dare I say it - the media.

People are not comfortable with the manner in which our country is governed. Many are disaffected and increasingly disengaged.

These feelings of disaffection are the result of no one single factor. A number of reasons over a long period of time have led to the current situation, but the very prominent series of recent scandals across several major institutions, in Parliament with MPs' expenses, and in journalism with phone-hacking and in banking, have added to this sense.

In Britain today there is a growing lack of public trust. Too often the political class seems dominated by elites, out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.

The UK had a trust in government of just 41 per cent in 2012, one of the lowest figures against a global average of 51 per cent.

Trust in politicians is even lower, with 80 per cent of people in 2011 stating that they do not trust politicians, ranking lowest of all professions surveyed.

There is no single answer to this problem. But part of the solution surely lies in making the political class more representative of the wider population.

According to much-quoted but nevertheless still shocking figures from the Sutton Trust, 35 per cent of MPs elected in 2010 general election attended independent schools, compared with just 7 per cent of the general population. This figure was an increase on the previous three elections.

Similar figures could be produced for the senior Civil Service, as well as leaders of the larger companies, the judicial and legal and many other professions.

In truth, at the head of most of the hierarchies which govern our country, you will find people who come from the same backgrounds, went to the same schools and to the same universities.

This is particularly true of the Westminster village. We urgently need to be looking for modern solutions to ensuring that there are pathways into Parliament, the Civil Service and public appointments for people from backgrounds who are underrepresented.

An Ipsos-Mori survey from January this year revealed that 60 per cent of the population regard themselves as working class.

Working-class Britain looks very different from when Labour was founded at the turn of the last century. Supermarkets, call-centre staff and office workers have replaced the mines, docks and steelworks.

But the more than one million people who work in call centres are people who still need a political voice.

Currently, not a single MP in the current Parliament comes from that background.

It is surely the task of the Labour Party and the wider labour movement to tackle this matter.

Some of the brightest, most brilliant people I know are already doing everything that would mean they would make a fantastic councillor or great MP, changing their street and improving their area and the lives of others who live there. Yet too often such community change-makers do not see elected positions as a way of achieving their aims.

I want to change this perception. Too often those working full-time on lower incomes often find it difficult to fund even a selection campaign and to get the necessary time off work.

We need to find ways of supporting these candidates.

Ed Miliband has recognised the need to reconnect both the Labour Party and the roles of councillor and MP with their original purpose, a purpose that is still alive and going strong in many communities.

The Labour Party has launched the Future Candidates Programme, which aims to provide local parties with a larger and more representative pool of talent to choose from.

Many graduates of the FCP have already been successful and we will be expanding the scheme again this year.

The trade unions have a role too in ensuring that working people are not excluded from the processes of becoming political representatives.

This is why we are working closely with the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation in its work supporting potential candidates.

However, this crisis of diversity is not confined to politicians - it is reflected in the Civil Service and right across public appointments.

As many as 49 per cent of senior civil servants were privately educated - seven times the national average - and remarkably, only 5 per cent attended a state comprehensive.

It cannot be right that the highest levels of the Civil Service are drawn almost exclusively from a narrow social elite.

The Tories have failed to act to address the lack of diversity in the corridors of power.

Whitehall's diversity strategy hasn't been updated since the last Labour government and it is only a Labour government that can take the action needed to bring about the change that is needed.

The Tories cannot tackle this crisis - they are part of the problem, not the solution.

They represent a narrow section of vested interests often at odds with the concerns of the vast majority of Britain.

At a time when opinion polls show that the coalition government is viewed by an overwhelming majority as the "party of the rich," the importance of "One Nation" Britain has never been greater.

Democracy is meant to be the process whereby we identify the type of problems our society is facing and then help to resolve them.

But if democracy itself becomes part of the problem and shares the phenomenon that I have just described, then you have significant political breakdown.

These matters can no longer be deferred. I hope that working people from all backgrounds now begin to push themselves forward so that their experiences, values, disappointments, hopes and aspirations can begin to take hold in the corridors of power.

Only if this happens can we be sure that there will be change to a more egalitarian, democratic and socialist society will begin to take place.

Jon Trickett is Labour MP for Hemsworth and shadow minister for the Cabinet Office.