Clarke tells Brown to give up 'dog-whistle politics'

Gordon Brown's woes deepened yesterday when the former cabinet minister Charles Clarke mounted a strong attack on his leadership and demanded an urgent change of course.

Mr Clarke said the Prime Minister should stop using "bullying" tactics to stifle debate and abandon "dog- whistle politics" such as promising "British jobs for British workers". The technique, targeting messages about sensitive issues such as immigration at specific groups which only they hear, is a jibe normally thrown at the Tories by Labour.

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The former home secretary said Labour needs to correct "short-term errors which, week-by-week, erode confidence in Labour's competence and capacity".

He suggested an early mini-Budget to solve the problems caused by the abolition of the 10p lower rate of tax; called for the scrapping of plans to allow suspected terrorists to be detained for 42 days without charge; and demanded that post office closures be suspended and women's pensions safeguarded.

Mr Clarke's criticism came as cabinet ministers told Mr Brown there would have to be an urgent package of compensation for the 5.3 million "losers" from the abolition of the 10p rate.

"There was a real sense of urgency in the Cabinet," said one minister. "We were all united on the need to do something as quickly as possible. It won't wait until the autumn." However, Mr Brown's allies said later that it was more important to get the compensation package right and to prevent it being too bureaucratic.

Mr Brown told the Cabinet: "I take full responsibility." He agreed the Government would have to produce a solution to the 10p tax row "as quickly as we can".

Writing in the journal of the Labour modernisers' group, Progress, Mr Clarke warned: "We do not have much time to reverse the damaging shifts in opinion against Labour which we have seen in opinion polls and the elections."

Although defeat in a 2010 general election was not inevitable, he added that "could come true if Labour does not clearly resolve its direction and approach well before this year's [autumn] party conferences".

The former deputy leadership contender Jon Cruddas warned last night that the Labour Party faced being "outflanked" by the new, more humane face of the Tories and warned the party faced "freefall" if it did not change. "Our coalition is splintering in a dreadful way, but whole sections of our party leadership are in complete denial about this," he said.

Mr Clarke said: "We should discard the techniques of 'triangulation' and 'dividing lines' with the Conservatives, which lead to the ... charge that we simply follow proposals from the Conservatives or the right-wing media, to minimise differences and remove lines of attack against us." Voters "have the right to expect better" from Labour, he added.

*A new poll added to the Prime Minister's woes last night. The Populus survey found 55 per cent of Labour voters believed the party would be more likely to win the next general election if Mr Brown stood down in favour of a "younger, fresher, more charismatic leader". The poll put the Tories one point up at 40 per cent, Labour down four points at 29 per cent and the Liberal Democrats up two at 19 per cent.