As the first person to declare his candidacy for Labour’s deputy leadership, Jon Cruddas has made it clear from the beginning that he is standing to be deputy leader, and not deputy prime minister. Despite being one of the least well known of all the candidates, the fact that he holds no government position has allowed him the space to campaign more aggressively for the role. This has enabled him to amass support from those on the left of the party, who respond well to his call for a reassessment of the way politics is currently done.

So what marks him out from the ministerial contenders standing for deputy? ‘I want a much more systematic overhaul of the party, both organisationally and in terms of our policy platform, than I would suggest is the case with some of the other candidates,’ he says. ‘The most important thing is that we have a genuine, thorough discussion about where we’re at, what are the contemporary challenges we face, and what are the remedies appropriate for the next 10 years, and not the last 10 years.’

Cruddas sees one of these challenges as reinvigorating the party, and argues that the elected deputy leader should replace the party chair. This, he is keen to clarify, ‘is not about Hazel Blears, Ian McCartney, Charles Clarke or John Reid.’ Rather, he explains, ‘the party chair seems to be about transmitting the views of the cabinet to the party. Some of the debate we had 10 years ago about devising a party chair was to reflect the views of the party to government. So I think we have to get back to that, but in the form of the deputy leader.’

It was nearly 10 years ago that Cruddas was working at Downing Street as the prime minister’s deputy political secretary. In 2001, he became MP for Dagenham and has subsequently voted against the governmen on several issues, most recently on Trident. However, his years at No 10 have left him with a fondness and sympathy for those currently working there, particularly with the ongoing cash-for-honours inquiry. ‘I think the debate that has been raging around that, it is not the No 10 I recognise,’ he says. ‘I can’t believe some of the charges that are around. I have immense sympathy for all the participants – everyone I have ever met in terms of Downing Street was always in it for precisely the right reasons – public service.’

For many, it is odd to imagine Cruddas as a No 10 aide. Since being elected he has distanced himself from many areas of government policy, and is viewed as being from the left of the party. He describes himself as more ‘new’ than New Labour, and feels the government is not focusing on the issues that really matter to the general public. ‘I think one of the basic problems we have at the moment is that our political strategy is not addressing the real insecurities and vulnerabilities of many people. I think we were brilliant in 1997 in being a vehicle for articulating those concerns, and I think we are not doing that now’.

Cruddas offers the recent Queen’s speech as an example of this: ‘We talked about insecurity, and it was all about migrants, criminals, terrorists and asylum seekers. But if you talk about insecurity in the community I represent, they would primarily talk about housing insecurity, or insecurity at work, or the inability to get access to good primary care here. And that’s how I would frame the debate around the contemporary approach to insecurity.’

Cruddas hails from the East London seat of Dagenham, which has seen a dramatic growth over the years in support of the BNP, a phenomenon he has monitored and fought hard against. In the build up to the local elections, does he think we should be worried about another BNP advancement? ‘I wouldn’t underestimate the significance of the BNP in this country now,’ he says. ‘It seems to me that every time a government minister gets up they say it’s an isolated issue in a few parts of the country. That’s not the case from what we are picking up around the country. There’s something palpable occurring underneath the body politic in terms of the respective support for the far right, and if we swerve around that then we’re in really dangerous territory.’

Cruddas attributes part of the BNP’s success to Labour’s neglect of its traditional working-class support. Hewould prefer party strategists spent more time rebuilding the 1997 coalition, and less time obsessing about a handful of marginal seats. ‘That’s not to dis-invent the significance of the key marginals in an election,’ he says. ‘But it is to state that that we need to rebuild a robust, wide, deep coalition, rather than simply see those key marginals as an end in themselves. An ever more precise scientific calibration about the preferences and prejudices of swing voters in a very small part of the electoral landscape does a disservice to the Labour party.’ This is why he thinks that ‘the deputy leader should reflect all elements within that coalition, and not just reproduce the political priorities of a very small slice of the electorate.’

However, he can’t fail to notice that it is in these marginal seats that David Cameron is making the most progress, and Cruddas himself has said that he finds Cameron’s approach a welcome departure from those of his predecessors. Does he think the public share this view? ‘I do find him refreshing. I think it’s good you don’t have a Conservative leader who simply barks on about dark people all the time, which seemed to be the hallmark of their last general election campaign.’ However, in terms of policy and strategy, Cruddas is not convinced Cameron is making headway: ‘I just don’t think he is producing the policy responses that would be necessary to defeat us at the next general election. I am confident we can establish the fault lines for the next election to beat him, and assuming it’s Gordon Brown, I think his weight versus Cameron’s lightness will be in our favour.’

Does he therefore support Brown for the leadership? ‘ I find part of this deputy leadership contest quite unedifying actually. The candidates seem to be outbidding each other in their devotion to Gordon Brown. I get uncomfortable with that.’ Cruddas points out that before he publicly casts his vote for the leader, he intends to wait and see who presents the best ideas on how to galvanise the party. ‘If Brown wants to be leader, then what’s he going to do? What are his views about Labour renewal? What are his views about some of the outstanding issues we face, with 100,000 added to the housing list in London over the last three to four years? Seems to me it’s quite an irrational response to say we need a thorough wide-ranging debate about the future of the party and its policy agenda, and then say before we have that debate that I think “X” should be leader. That seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse.’

In many ways it is hard to pin Cruddas down – a philosophy PhD, a former aide to the prime minister, a rebel MP, and now a deputy leadership candidate, who initially faced incredulity because of his lack of experience in government. This inexperience is brushed off by Cruddas. ‘I want to see the party rebuilt, and what we don’t need is more of the same.’ Whatever else he might be, Cruddas is definitely not that.