Labour MP Frank Field said that society has lost confidence in what it is and needs to “relearn the rules” by which it used to live.
The MP for Birkenhead told an audience of academics that the working class, who used to “run the Labour party”, are now “almost forgotten” by the party.
There are growing concerns about the white working classes, who are seeking solace in the far right as immigration rises.
Labour leader Ed Miliband admitted last month that while in power the party got it “wrong” on immigration and has pledged to protect unskilled jobs in the future.
Mr Field said that in his lifetime the Labour Party has transformed from one dominated by the working classes to one where the “trendy” London middle classes ruled, the Independent reported.
“We’ve moved to a stage where what was that minority is in a governing position, which imposes upon the working class its moral economy… there is a real crisis of representation,” he said.
Mr Field, who caused controversy when he accepted place in David Cameron’s Government, told the “Diversity and the White Working Class” conference, hosted by Birkbeck, University of London: “I argue not to have these wonderful citizenship ceremonies just for people who want to come here, I think the poor working class in Birkenhead needs them.
“We need to relearn what these rules are because they are not taught by the intermediary organisations which [were] very strong.”
The discussion also heard from Dr Rebecca Taylor, of Manchester University, who claimed that white working-class people have been put into two categories - the “chav” and the “beleaguered native” who is danger of extinction.
The word “chav”, she claimed, is used to caricature and write off sections of the population who are often poor white people living on council estates.
She said that it “produces an image of a white working class that is socially undesirable and culturally inept”.
They are also seen as a failing to keep up with multicultural Britain, and therefore in opposition to the savvy middle classes.
Dr Gareth Harris, of Birkbeck at the University of London, pointed out that there is a strong link between the white working class and support for the far right. The profile of a BNP voter when the party was at its height was middle aged, working class males.
He added: “Support for the far right [is] not just a response to changes in the demographic makeup of the UK but strongly coupled with a profound sense of distrust of the mainstream political process. People are becoming more and more disengaged and I think this is very dangerous.”