Former minister brands Downing Street staff 'incompetent'

Backroom staff at 10 Downing Street were today denounced as "incompetent" by a former minister, who said they had failed to communicate Gordon Brown's strengths to the public.

Former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells said Mr Brown was "a much more solid individual than is portrayed publicly" and should have been allowed to be much more open and accessible to voters.

Key aides within Downing Street failed to capitalise on Mr Brown's strong response to the banking crisis a year ago, said Dr Howells.

He acknowledged that Labour's hopes of winning the general election had taken "a bit of a blow" from last week's failed coup, but insisted it was not too late to turn round the PM's image.

The Pontypridd MP, who is standing down at the election, told The Independent: "People around him self-evidently were failing to communicate Gordon's strengths, which he did manage to communicate during the most critical period after the immediate failure of the American banking system.

"They never managed to capitalise on that. They were, I think, incompetent and it seemed to me there was real evidence there were people in very important places not capable of saying very hard things to the Prime Minister.

"Some of these people who are very highly paid haven't done a very good job of projecting him."

Dr Howells said Mr Brown's team should have urged him to be "more himself" and more open about his beliefs.

And he said his best moments at Prime Minister's Questions had come over the past few weeks, when he had been "less defensive and more ready to attack" David Cameron on the economy.