Minister warns Brown: 'You're out of touch'

The Prime Minister is due to address restive Labour MPs amid mounting fears on the party's benches that it is heading for a drubbing in both local and mayoral elections on May 1.

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Recent polls have put Labour between 13 and 16 points behind the Conservatives, enough to give David Cameron a landslide victory at a General Election.

Health Minister Ivan Lewis issued an extraordinary warning that Labour now appeared "silent on the daily realities facing hardworking families".

Only demonstrating to people that the Government was "on your side" could head off the threat from the "seductive" Conservatives, Mr Lewis said.

The minister insisted his bleak assessment was not meant as a criticism of the Prime Minister.

But it was in direct contradiction to Mr Brown's claim as he launched Labour's local election campaign last week that the party stood for the "struggles and the hopes and ambitions of hard-working families".

Mr Lewis said: "We have been in government 11 years and instead of being on the side of the people, too often we simply defend the status quo, even when it is unacceptable.

"It is right we focus on the great challenges of climate change, globalisation, security and poverty at home and abroad and the nature of public service reform.

"However, we are too often silent on the daily realities facing hard-working families."

In an article for the Blairite campaign group Progress, Mr Lewis said it was a "great irony" that having once been famed for its skills at political communication, Labour had now "failed so dismally" to persuade people that public services and living standards were improving.

He added: "We must face up to the reality that the New Labour coalition which has delivered our unprecedented three terms is now under severe strain.

"It is both the permanent Labour voter and those who signed up to New Labour who want reassurance that we are still on their side."

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Mr Lewis warned that Labour was still living with the "stigma" of an unpopular war in Iraq and was also the party of government at a time when the public's respect for Westminster politicians had slumped to an "all-time low".

More broadly, he said, people felt the Government "is losing touch with what fairness means to the mainstream majority who work hard, play by the rules, and are feeling squeezed by rising utility bills, the cost of petrol and rising council tax".

The minister's warning came amid signs of embarrassing infighting inside Number Ten.

Mr Brown's loyal old guard has increasingly clashed with a newly-appointed team of strategy chiefs and spin doctors.

An article in the latest issue of PR Week - a trade magazine for the communications industry - has caused turmoil by quoting Downing Street staff discussing how to improve Mr Brown's speeches and style.

It quoted one "senior" source - suspected of being one of the new appointments - as saying: "It has been acknowledged that the Government's messages are too cluttered and that Gordon needs to show a bit more personality."

Of Mr Lewis's remarks, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I don't agree with him that we are out of touch.

"I do agree with him that it's fundamentally important that we listen to the British people.'

Downing Street insisted it was "relaxed" about what the minister had said.