Labour has never been "more remote" from the interests of rural Britain and treats the countryside with a "polite indifference", a suppressed internal party report has admitted.

A damning inquiry leaked to the Telegraph concludes that the "greater the rurality of an area, the less likely people are to vote Labour".

The report, which was conducted as part of the inquiry into Labour's 2015 election defeat, suggests the party cannot win a general election without winning at least 20 seats in rural areas and that the "route map to Number 10 runs through rural Britain."