Sir Keir Starmer has been warned by Tony Blair’s former Downing Street spin doctor to “get a grip” in No 10 – or risk losing power to Nigel Farage.
In a withering attack, Alastair Campbell said public support for the prime minister was “draining away” fast, adding that the government had “no compiling narrative” and had scored ‘too many own goals.’
The intervention by Mr Campbellcomes amid reports the prime minister has apologised to his health secretary Wes Streeting over a briefing operation against him on Tuesday evening from within Downing Street.
Mr Campbell said the prime minister needs to reassert control as he faces demands to sack his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney over the claims made by sources that Mr Streeting was preparing to launch a leadership coup.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Campbell said he believed the Labour Party’s strategy “isn’t going very well”.
He said: “The worst thing about recent days is it’s made a relatively new government look like the last lot.
“There are bigger, worse enemies – like Nigel Farage who if we are not careful are going to come in and take over this country and take it to a very dark place.”
Mr Campbell, who resigned himself after a decade working for Sir Tony, warned: “I do think that what we’re seeing is in a media world that prefers scandal and personality to policy and trends, there are too many people inside politics who feed the frenzy rather than just get on with governing.
“And the worst thing about recent days, to my mind, is it’s made a relatively new government with a massive majority look all too much like the last lot [the Tories].
He went on: “Morgan [McSweeney] is very, very important, has been for a long time, but he hopefully will note by now that governing and campaigning are not the same thing. Everybody in number 10 should understand they are there to serve the prime minister and the government. Nobody should care what they think, what they do, what their great strategic thoughts are. And right now, the strategy isn’t going very well.”
Mr Campbell warned that everyone in public life “has a reputational bank and the currency flows in and out”.
He said: “Something has gone dreadfully wrong that so much has drained just a little over the year in government.”
It comes as energy secretary Ed Miliband claimed that Sir Keir would sack the person responsible for the briefings which derailed the government this week.
Mr Miliband, who was also accused of being on manoeuvres to replace Sir Keir, insisted that the PM would sack the person responsible for the debacle.
“I’ve talked to Keir before about this kind of briefing that happens. As he always says, if he finds the person, he’ll get rid of them, and I absolutely believe he would do that,” he told Sky News.
Asked if he thought Sir Keir Starmer would sack the person, he said, “Sure, yeah.”
He also noted that briefing is a “longstanding aspect” of politics and pointed back to there being “lots and lots of briefing” under Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
“Look, I think the briefing has been bad, no question. But my message to the Labour Party, though, is quite simple today, which is, we need to focus on the country, not ourselves,” he told Sky News.
He added: “Turbulence is part of the gig, is part of the DNA of being in government.”
