Gordon Brown’s attempt to label David Cameron a “shallow salesman” is a mistake, one of his most influential backbench critics said yesterday.

Instead the Prime Minister should learn from the Tory leader’s ability to empathise rather than use the “managerial” language that risks Labour being perceived as “tone deaf”, Jon Cruddas told The Times.

Mr Brown will set out his plans to stage a political comeback at a meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow. A senior party figure said he was determined to contrast Mr Cameron’s “salesman-ship” with his own “substance”.

But Mr Cruddas, a former No 10 aide who is regarded as a potential Labour leader, last night criticised the stategy.

“I think that we are misunderstanding what is happening in the Tory party. We are locked into an old-fashioned view of the centre ground, whereas the Tories are capturing the public imagination and altering the terms of debate,” he said.

Mr Cruddas, who built up a powerful base in last year’s Labour deputy leadership race, dismissed speculation that he would challenge Mr Brown.

But he said that painting Mr Cameron as a shallow opportunist was a mistake as were attacks on his privileged background. “There is a shift in Conservatism. It doesn’t fall out the sky with a couple of posh boys. They are talking the language of relationships and fraternity and we are talking about precision-bombing messages to specific cohorts of swing voters – it’s so old-fashioned,” said the Dagenham MP. He cautioned that Labour risked appearing “tone-deaf” to voters’ concerns, and the party needed to match Mr Cameron’s “emotional literacy”.

“Cameron is going with the grain with people’s concerns whereas we are using managerial language,” he said. “We are getting squeezed on the one hand, with our coalition falling apart disproportionately among our traditional supporters, and on the other hand by a much more sophisticated, emotionally literate Conservatism that we are not addressing.”

Mr Brown faced further criticism from John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, as he released analysis which showed that the BNP polled more votes than Labour in Ed Balls’s constituency in West Yorkshire. Calling for a return to bread-and-butter issues, he said: “Nobody in the North of England, and I suspect none in the South, gives a damn about which world leaders Gordon Brown or David Cameron hobnob with. They want clear, uncomplicated leadership, prioritising their fears, aspirations and every day realities.”

Meanwhile, Mr Brown’s attempts to draw a line under the 10p tax row appeared to be unravelling amid growing confusion over the proposed compensation package.

Labour MPs yesterday called on the Government to be more explicit about the package before the by-election in Crewe & Nantwich on May 22.

“We want them to bring us into their confidence and start spelling out the message as they build up so we can take that message to the country, but also we know that the Government is on the right tracks and that a package will be delivered,” said Frank Field, the leader of the 10p rebels Mr Brown caused further confusion by appearing to suggest that a quarter of those affected had already been compensated. In an interview on Sky News on Saturday, the Prime Minister denied that 5.3 million households had lost out, insisting that only 3.8 million now needed compensating.

Tories eye Crewe

David Cameron travels to Crewe today to oversee preparations for a by-election that he hopes could sound the death knell for Gordon Brown’s Government.

The Tory leader has already dispatched one of his most senior strategists to run an aggressive campaign, urging voters to seize the chance to rid Britain of Mr Brown. The arrival in Crewe & Nantwich of Stephen Gilbert, who runs the Conservative Party’s “target seats” operation, shows that the Tories are serious about contesting the seat. Mr Gilbert will be backed by a team of about five MPs as they seek to help Edward Timpson overturn a 7,078 Labour majority.

Tamsin Dunwoody, the daughter of the late MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, was selected at the weekend to contest the seat for Labour.

The Liberal Democrats have imposed a woman, Elizabeth Shenton, on their local consituency party, in place of the official male candidate. Miss Great Britain, Gemma Garrett, 26, is standing for the Beauties for Britain Party.

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