David Cameron has “touched a nerve” with the British people as the Tories exploit a “big gap” in Labour’s performance after 11 years in power, a government minister has warned.

In a candid assessment of Labour’s prospects, as Gordon Brown prepares to return to the political fray next week, skills minister David Lammy calls on the Labour party to do more to “refresh our core story” and expose Tory weaknesses.

Lammy writes in the September edition of Progress, the Blairite magazine: “The truth is that the Tories’ change in language has touched a nerve, reflecting a big gap in our own political narrative. Yet beneath Cameron’s rhetoric lies the basic philosophy that failed Britain in the past. The Tories demand responsibility without offering support; they appeal for fraternity without any real belief in equality; they have finally noticed ’society,’ but remain implacably hostile to the state.”

…more at the Guardian