Labour lost the general election because the party failed to convince voters it could be trusted, particularly on the economy, Dame Margaret Beckett has said.

She claimed Labour had failed to overcome the "huge myth" spread by the Conservatives that Labour had caused the financial crash of 2008.

Speaking after the publication of her report into Labour's performance at the 2015 general election, she said with the benefit of hindsight, she was not sure the election had been winnable for Labour.

"The more I look at the situation and the obstacles we had to overcome, the more I wonder whether we could have won," she said.

She admitted Labour was "badly beaten" but pointed out that the party's vote had gone up but not always in the seats it needed to win.

On the leadership, Dame Margaret reiterated her support for Ed Miliband both then and now, but said "you could hear axes grinding" on election night as the exit poll was released.

She said she was "sorry he was so badly traduced".

Asked whether things might have been different under David Miliband - the former foreign secretary and Ed Mililband's brother - Dame Margaret said people had an "unrealistic expectation" about that, because as leader he would have been attacked "in the same way every Labour leader is".

Dame Margaret praised Jeremy Corbyn for encouraging people to look at key issues "in depth and with the importance they deserve". 

She said Labour had to take on some of the arguments "in greater depth" and described the challenge as an "uphill struggle". She called on Labour to have "clear messages that we repeat again and again and again". This, she said, had been one of Labour's bigger problems.

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Labour faces an "uphill struggle" to improve its fortunes, Ed Miliband's former policy review chief Jon Cruddas has told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

Welcoming Dame Margaret Beckett's Labour election inquiry, Mr Cruddas, who released his own independent probe into why Labour lost last August, said he believed Mr Miliband should have stayed on after the election for the benefit of the party.

"Really we needed a transition period to allow ourselves to fully own the defeat actually and we never have done," he said. "So hopefully Margaret's report this afternoon will start to allow us to regroup and try and own what happened."

But the MP for Dagenham and Rainham warned the party: "We need to overcome the dangers of becoming too inwardly focused. 

"We need to chart a vision of where the country is in 2025 and how we can confront some of the enduring economic and social disadvantages that plague our country; how we can have a compelling story of what the good life is and how everyone can prosper in terms of a programme of economic and social change for this country."

The Conservative candidate for London mayor has vowed to double house-building in the capital, pledging to ensure homes are built at a rate of 50,000 a year by 2020.

There were 21,350 new houses built in the year to September 2015.

Launching his campaign, Zac Goldsmith said only he would be "able to secure the funds and powers needed from this government".

Labour candidate Sadiq Khan has pledged a minimum of 80,000 new homes a year.

Mr Goldsmith said he would oversee the start of the Night Tube project, bring suburban rail services under mayoral control and pledged to protect the green belt.

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A "concrete proposal" for European Union reform will be tabled within weeks, Donald Tusk has said in an apparent boost to David Cameron's hopes of securing a quick renegotiation deal.

The European Council president said it was "not easy but possible" that agreement could be reached between the other 27 member states at a summit next month.

That could open the door to the in/out referendum on Britain's continued membership of the bloc being held as early as June. 

Mr Tusk told MEPs: 

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Students protesting against government plans to scrap maintenance grants in England block Westminster Bridge for more than an hour and a half.

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A selection of quotes from Dame Margaret Beckett's report into Labour's 2015 General Election defeat:

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Dame Margaret Beckett says she is not sure if Labour could ever have won last year's General Election.

Following publication of her report - Learning the Lessons of Defeat - she was asked if it could have been a winnable election, to which she replied: "With the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure it was."

She conceded the party had been "badly beaten". Dame Margaret said Labour's policies had been "very popular", but people "didn't have a feel for what a Labour government would be".

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David Cameron spoke to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani by telephone for 20 minutes this afternoon in what the prime minister's spokeswoman said was a warm conversation.

Marking the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran, Mr Cameron said this was a very good day in international relations.

The spokeswoman said Mr Cameron pressed Mr Rouhani for progress on a small number of consular cases involving dual national citizens in Iranian jails.

The British government hopes for improved economic and diplomatic relations following the lifting of sanctions.

There are discussions about upgrading UK representation from charge d'affaires to ambassadorial level.

There were no detailed discussions on Syria, but the UK hopes Iran will be represented at the London conference on the conflict there next month.

Tom Edgington
Radio 4 Political Producer

Jon Cruddas MP, Ed Miliband's former policy chief, has told Radio 4's PM programme that Labour faces an "uphill struggle". 

Welcoming Dame Margaret Beckett's Labour election inquiry Mr Cruddas, who released his own independent inquiry into why Labour lost last August, said he believed that Ed Miliband should have stayed on after the election for the benefit of the party:

The full interview will be broadcast on Radio 4's PM programme from 5pm.  

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Labour "has nothing to fear and everything to gain" by having a sustained debate on what led to its defeat in 2015, Tony Blair's former head of media Matthew Doyle has said.

Instead the party has been operating in a "parallel universe" to the public, which has not been involved in the conversation about Labour's future, he said.

Mr Doyle criticised the length of time it had taken for the publication of Dame Margaret Beckett's report into what went wrong.

He also told BBC News the party had "hundreds of policies" that were popular with the electorate, but said unless it could be trusted with the economy, it could not win.

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On the day that a report exposed failings in opinion polls before the last general election, the House Lords approved a bill which would create a new watchdog to regulate future opinion polling.

The legislation, external would give a new body the power to specify sampling methods, produce guidance on wording of questions and decide whether there should be a moratorium on polls in the run-up to elections. 

But the private member's bill, tabled by Labour peer Lord Foulkes, has yet to be introduced to the Commons and is unlikely to become law due to lack of parliamentary time and government support. 

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Unless Labour starts thinking about why it lost the 2015 General Election it "won't be able to win again", former leader Ed Miliband's spin doctor has claimed.

Tom Baldwin, Mr Miliband's right-hand man during Labour's campaign, told BBC News:

Mr Baldwin made the comments a short while after Labour former cabinet minister Dame Margaret Beckett published her report into what led to the party's defeat.   

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Dame Margaret Beckett's report which assesses why Labour lost last year's General Election is "an extremely sobering assessment of the facts as they face us", says shadow business secretary Angela Eagle.

She argued that the party needed to "remake" its appeal to win back deserting voters.

And it needed to "win back the trust of the Scottish people" which saw a collapse in the Labour vote in favour of the SNP.

But Ms Eagle told BBC News that Labour leader Jeremy Corby had "doubled the size" of the party and rejuvenated it with "energy and political involvement".

"What Margaret is doing and what's she's done very well is present us with facts and challenges," she added.

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Dame Margaret Becklett's 35-page internal report into why Labour lost the 2015 election, external praises Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for "rightly focusing on trust in politics" as one of the lessons learned following the party's defeat in 2015.

She said Mr Corbyn's approach had also "mobilised young people, and engaged more directly with the electorate".

But Dame Margaret, who previously described herself as "a moron" for nominating Mr Corbyn for the leadership to broaden the debate while not expecting him to win, commented that the "excitement" generated by that contest led to a surge in membership, which "was at its highest for 15 years".

In her analysis of what went wrong, she urged caution on a number of theories, which included that the party was "too left wing", "too anti-business" and "anti-aspiration".

Dame Margaret said the report followed consultation with tens of thousands of party members, political figures and those involved in the campaign - along with input from pollsters, pundits and academics.

“The road to re-election is a marathon, not a sprint," she said.

"If we learn the lessons of defeat in 2015, we can take the steps needed to rebuild a society in which the common good, and greater prosperity for all go hand in hand, and elect a Labour Government.”

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Three chances were missed to prosecute late peer Lord Janner over sex abuse claims, an inquiry has found.

The independent inquiry, external, commissioned by the director of public prosecutions, found police and prosecutors missed opportunities to charge Lord Janner in 1991, 2002 and 2007.

Before he died in December, the ex-Labour MP - who then had dementia - was accused of 22 counts of sex offences against boys between the 1960s and 80s.

His family denies the allegations.

The inquiry found the 1991 decision not to charge Lord Janner was "wrong" as there was enough evidence against him to provide "a realistic prospect of conviction" for indecent assault and one other serious sexual offence.

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Ed Miliband was not judged to be as strong a leader as David Cameron, an internal Labour report into why the party lost the 2015 election has found.

The report, external - Learning the Lessons - written by former Labour Cabinet minister Dame Margaret Beckett, said pollsters and activists on the doorstep consistently heard four reasons for the party's defeat.

These also included:

• A failure to shake off "the myth" that Labour was responsible for the financial crash and failure to build trust on the economy
• An inability to deal with the issues of “connection” and, in particular, failing to convince on benefits and immigration
• The fear of the SNP “propping up” a minority Labour government.

Dame Margaret concluded: “The reaction to the 2015 result was inevitably an emotional one for Labour because it was such a surprise.

"There was certainly no complacency in the Labour ranks, but the polls showed us neck and neck with the Tories, when clearly we weren’t.

“There are certainly lessons to learn from defeat. This report has been a key part of recognising areas we need to improve on and building on aspects of our campaign that performed well.

"Labour gained votes in the 2015 election both in the UK as a whole and in England and Wales. There was a small swing to Labour, 1.5 per cent. This was the first election since 1997 when Labour’s share of the vote went up. However, we know this was not enough to deliver a Labour government."

Lib Dem Tom Brake's Freedom of Information (Public Interest and Transparency) Bill will be aired at second reading on a future Friday devoted to backbench members' bills.

The legislation would amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to remove the ability of ministers to overrule decisions made by the Information Commissioner - and limit the time allowed for public bodies to respond.

The bill would also extend the act to cover "private companies, social enterprises and charities contracted to carry out work by public authorities". 

However, the bill is unlikely to make it into law, due to lack of parliamentary time.