Tony Blair's ex-aide launches attack on Sunak: 'He doesn't want to take responsibility on anything!'

Mcternan explained to Camilla Tominey that circumstances in the UK including the cost of living crisis makes it "hard" to share a "sense of hope and optimism".

He said: "There's a much more difficult feeling around, people are in a cost of living crisis, the electorate doesn't just see one problem in hospitals with waiting lists, they see another problem in social care, they see an inability to get to see a GP - everything seems to be breaking down.

"In this situation, it's really hard to encourage the sense of hope and optimism for the future."

He added: "The Prime Minister's position on everything is that all is well, and nothing that's bad is my fault.

"And this sense that the Government don't want to take responsibility about anything with Gillian Keegan who is the absolute emblem of it after her off camera remarks about why doesn't she get any f****** credit for what she's doing, I think that sums up the Government at the moment.

"Rishi has this strange confidence that everything is going fine is completely odd.

"I think voters who haven't switched off from listening to the Government are going what?!"

It comes after Labour leader Keir Starmer reshuffled his top team for the first time which saw several key players demoted and key allies promoted.

Discussing the new Labour team, Mcternan said: "He's given a massive job to his deputy leader, Angela Rayner.

"She's now in charge of building planning and local government, regional inequality and on top of that she's going to have to deal with devolution and the plans for a Labour government devolving power to councils and more power to Scotland and Wales.

"So a gigantic responsibility for somebody who is from the soft left. He also kept Ed Miliband in place, so I think the idea it's a shift to the right is to misunderstand it.

"It's a shift to promote those who are talented and those who performed well and people who've shown in their posts, whether in the cabinet or in in ministerial roles, have been moved up around and wrong.

"And you see that with Liz Kendall's promotion, you see it with Peter Kyle's promotion to Science Minister and you see it the sense of shadow cabinet ready to go.

"We are an alternative government, which I think is the answer to all the troubles the government's having is well there is an alternative to people who can't seem to sort anything out and it's this team and I think here's got his team for the next election."