Jack Straw admitted yesterday that Gordon Brown needed to “rethink” his approach and recapture “Middle Britain”.

The Justice Secretary admitted that voters appeared to “blank out” any of the Government’s achievements but he denied that Mr Brown’s prospects of leading his party to victory were hopeless.

A week before the start of Labour’s conference in Manchester Mr Straw urged the party not to veer to the left as it seeks to counter David Cameron’s resurgent Conservative Party.

“We are in power because of the support of middle Britain. We have to return to the battle for middle Britain. That is the battleground.” Mr Straw has provoked suspicion in Number 10, particularly after an ally admitted canvassing support for a challenge to the Prime Minster. He was nominated by an unnamed Cabinet minister as the right figure to lead a delegation to Mr Brown asking him to step down in the wake of the Glasgow East by-election defeat.

He cautioned against any attempt to remove the Prime Minister in an interview yesterday, however.

“We have already changed our leader and it was the right change. It has become fashionable to have a go at Gordon at the moment but that will burn itself out.”

Mr Straw acknowledged that the party faced tough conditions. “If you have been in power for this long people do blank out the good things that you have done or take them a bit for granted.” People were used to “relatively good times,” he said. “When the difficult times come it is destabilising. It does require a rethink.”

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