Miliband urged to ‘work’ on public

The former Cabinet Minister said he believed the party leader had the personality and steely determination to succeed.

But he said that unless he got out “on the stump” to gain public recognition and made the Opposition sound more relevant to ordinary voters it would be in trouble.

Mr Johnson, who stepped down as Shadow Chancellor almost a year ago for personal reasons, wrote in The Mirror that it was a “pivotal year”.

The party, he said, was “in good shape” – reserving particular praise for the most senior Shadow Cabinet members including his replacement Ed Balls, MP for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire. “Yet the message is not getting through,” cautioned Mr Johnson, MP for West Hull and Hessle. “Small opinion poll leads, welcome as they are, cannot hide the fact that the public remain suspicious about Labour.”

That was not helped by “unfortunate comments by people who profess their support for the leader they are busily undermining”, he said – in a swipe at Lord Glasman.

The Labour peer claimed last week that the leadership appeared to have “no strategy, no narrative and little energy”.

But Mr Johnson conceded that the leadership was not helping itself by failing to present its policies effectively and too often sounding like a “debating society”.

“At the moment Labour is like a pearl stuck firmly inside an oyster. Inside there’s a gem but the public can only see the shell,” he wrote.

Mr Miliband is expected to use a speech about the economy today to try to seize the political initiative.