Brown under fire as ex-minister warns Labour is in a 'deep hole'

Nick Raynsford said Labour was in a 'deep hole' and warned Mr Brown he risked inviting the contempt of voters with attempts to buy support with emergency tax cuts or giveaways.

In a devastating article, the former local government minister said it was not too late for the party to turn the situation around - and gave his implicit backing to Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Nick Raynsford (left) has written a provocative article in the New Statesman about the PM Gordon Brown

Like Mr Miliband, who made his leadership ambitions clear by setting out a personal manifesto for beating the Tories last month, Mr Raynsford made not a single direct mention of Mr Brown in Labour's fightback plans.

Instead, he praised Mr Miliband for 'rightly' stressing the need for Labour to start winning the argument with David Cameron over its record and vision for the future.

Most provocatively, Mr Raynsford likened Labour's plight to that of the Conservatives in 1990 - shortly before they ditched Margaret Thatcher.

Writing for the Left-wing New Statesman magazine, he said: 'While the Thatcher government was deeply unpopular in 1990, losing the Eastbourne by-election on a similar swing to Glasgow East, the electorate had not yet committed to Labour as the next government. Hence John Major's surprise victory in 1992.'

Mr Raynsford's intervention will heighten fears among Mr Brown's supporters of a coordinated campaign to destabilise his Premiership. It will be seen as particularly significant since he is a respected moderate MP.

Though the MP for Greenwich and Woolwich was careful not to criticise Mr Brown directly, he left MPs in no doubt about his central message.

'After the Glasgow East by-election, no one can doubt that Labour is in a deep hole,' he said.

Mr Raynsford's warnings that there is no single 'Get out of jail card' will be seen as a direct attack on Downing Street's frantic search for popular policies to form part of an autumn relaunch.

Mr Raynsford said Labour needed to 'stop inappropriate digging', and instead focus on the 'steps necessary to extract ourselves from the hole.

As David Miliband rightly stressed, we need to start by winning the argument over our record, our vision for the future and how we achieve it.'