SHADOW Government Minister Vernon Coaker has told Colchester Labour members to make sure they are part of the party’s resurrection.

Mr Coaker, who is Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, visited members of the Colchester branch on yesterday.

He told the audience at the Hythe Community Centre, in Ventura Way, the coalition Government is on its last legs.

“This Government is starting to implode and fall apart,” Mr Coaker said.

“People do not believe that we are all in this together and the Government is out of touch.”

He also said the only way Labour could win the next election is by becoming a Labour ‘movement’.

“There is a certain anti-politics mood around now, and Colchester seems to be the same but the work being done by local parties, particularly here in Colchester is outstanding,” he added.

“The national revival starts with winning one or two more seats in Colchester and, who knows, one or two more seats in Essex County Council.

“We need to show that work on the ground can make a difference, we need to show how wrong national policies are impacting on local communities.

“That is where local branches can really make in-roads.”

He added: “In Essex, you are losing police officers, for example.

“I do not believe anyone had in their manifesto in 2010, ‘we will cut the number of police officers on the streets’.”

Mr Coaker is the latest member of the shadow cabinet to visit Colchester, with Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury at the time, and Tessa Jowell, Shadow Minister for the Olympics, both visiting the town last year.