Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon has quit the opposition’s shadow cabinet in extraordinary fashion, telling Ray Hadley the ALP has lost blue-collar workers.

He said Labor can’t form government without that traditional Labor base and he has “more freedom” to challenge his party from the backbench.

“Those are the people I have traditionally mixed with, wearing the high-vis, working in the coal mines, power stations, oil and gas workers, those in the manufacturing sector.

“They have deserted us, in large numbers, and I am determined to win them back and to win them back you have to speak even more loudly and with greater levels of support than before you had when you lost them.

“I will continue from the backbench to work just as hard to convince [Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese] and our colleagues that if we don’t get back to our traditional base… putting the labor back into the Labor party … then we haven’t a hope in Hades of winning an election.”

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