Alongside the luxury of the imperial court and nobles' palaces, however, the working classes laboured in poverty – a situation that spiralled out of control around the turn of the 20th century, as industrialisation drew ever more peasants to the capital to work in factories.
He ended up a middle-class Labour voter.
Politically, the marker was Tony Blair's invention of New (ie Middle Class) Labour.
These hard-left forces... have never been mainstream organised working-class Labour.
Ukip was 600 votes away from taking a working-class Labour seat last week.
Since the referendum result – 55% no, 45% yes – disaffected working-class Labour voters have flocked to the SNP.
She includes in this category many older, working-class Labour voters, "who look at Jeremy Corbyn and run a mile".
"An even greater waste of our natural talent is the lack of working-class Labour MPs," he said.
We had to go after old working class Labour as well, who are some of the most patriotic people around".
He deplored the way middle-class Labour leaders such as Hugh Gaitskell and Tony Blair failed to appreciate the unions' traditions.
