'Shilly-shallying Brown must show vision,' former minister Frank Field warns

Frank Field said the Prime Minister's failure to call a general election last year means many voters now see him as a man who "shillyshallies around".

Mr Brown is losing ground to the Conservatives because of Mr Cameron's 'simple' message for less state control of public services, the Blairite Labour MP added.

The former welfare minister's veiled attack follows 'constructive criticism' by Tessa Jowell and David Miliband earlier this week.

Mr Field is a long-standing critic of the Premier, last year comparing him to Mrs Rochester, the mad woman in the attic in Jane Eyre.

Mr Field called on Mr Brown to let go of state control and introduce more choice in education and health, including allowing children to leave school at 14 and spend the £20,000 saved on their career.

He said: "If Gordon Brown is to ascend from the slough of despondency into which he has plunged his Government by dilly-dallying over an autumn election, solid competence must be the order of the day."

But he added there are 'huge fault lines' in the strategy. "First, ignoring the repeated promises on "the vision thing" will not prove a way out of the Government's unpopularity.

"Rather, it will significantly reinforce the unfortunate image that many voters now hold of the Prime Minister as a man who shilly-shallies around."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Field went on: "David Cameron has assiduously been seeking a narrative that will capture the public's imagination for the coming decade.

2Even the most competent government is likely to be found wanting if the Cameroons convince voters that they have captured the "vision thing" on how voters want Britain to be in ten years' time."

Mr Field, the MP for Birkenhead, said voters wanted a greater say in how their money is spent.

This included allowing parents to run their own schools, putting police chief superintendents up for reelection, and paying child benefit and tax credit up-front in a youngster's early years - because the cash is wasted as a child gets older.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "He's entitled to his view but I don't think anything he has said comes as a great surprise."