A leading Blairite peer has accused Labour of adopting a "scattergun" approach to tackling inequality.

In a lecture at the London School of Economics, Lord Anthony Giddens praised the government's "real achievements" on poverty, but insisted that ministers should put the same level of effort into cutting inequality as they had given to public services.

It is "not true" that Labour has failed on this issue, he said, pointing to full employment and the assistance given to the poorest pensioners.

"This Labour government is the first Labour government to actually affect redistribution rather than just talk about it," he added.

But Lord Giddens suggested that some on the Labour benches lack vision on tackling the problems of inequality.

"New Labour should make a commitment to a renewed egalitarianism... There is something out of kilter to New Labour's perspective," he said.

"It has given so much commitment to public services but there is no parallel integrated commitment really to secure a more socially just society."

The government's problem "comes from the scattergun nature of their policies", Lord Giddens added.  "It has so many policies that it's very hard to make sense of them."

Nevertheless, he criticised Liberal Democrat plans to introduce a new 50 per cent tax rate for the highest earners, claiming it would only raise £3.5 billion revenue and would create a new avenue of attack for the Conservative Party.

Instead, he advocated more clampdowns on tax avoidance schemes, and the encouragement of civic responsibility, perhaps through new tax credits for philanthropy.