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 compelling narrative” and had scored “too many own goals”.
The intervention by Mr Campbellcomes amid reports that the prime minister has apologised to his health secretary Wes Streeting over a briefing operation conducted against Mr Streeting on Tuesday evening from within Downing Street.
Mr Campbell said the prime minister needs to reassert control as Sir Keir 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 believes that 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 [is] going to come in and take over this country and take it to a very dark place.”
Mr Campbell, who resigned in 2003 after almost a decade working for Mr Blair, 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 getting 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 Conservative Party].
He went on: “Morgan [McSweeney] is very, very important, [he] has been for a long time, but he hopefully will note, by now, that governing and campaigning are not the same thing. Everybody in No 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 [in] just a little over a year in government.”
A Labour peer told The Independent that Sir Keir was being “derailed” by some of the people around him, and called on him to sack Mr McSweeney.
“Some say McSweeney is too powerful to sack – but that would now show that Starmer is fully in charge,” he said.
It comes as the energy secretary Ed Miliband claimed that Sir Keir would wish to sack the person responsible for the briefings that derailed the government this week.
Mr Miliband, who was also accused of being on manoeuvres to replace Sir Keir, insisted that the PM would “get rid of” the person responsible for the debacle if he was able to find out who they are.
“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 would sack the person, Mr Miliband said, “Sure, yeah.”
He also noted that briefing is a “longstanding aspect” of politics, and pointed to there having been “lots and lots of briefing” under Mr 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,” Mr Miliband continued. “Turbulence is part of the gig, is part of the DNA of being in government.”
