TONY BLAIR has blamed cabinet ministers for losing the public’s trust through a series of policy disasters, a leaked Downing Street memo reveals.

In a stark admission, the prime minister has told ministers that they have “too often” rushed out policies “in ignorance” of the pitfalls. He has also ordered them to improve performance on promised reforms of the public sector.

In a “personal minute” sent on March 29 to John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, and copied to cabinet ministers, Blair wrote: “Too often in the past, change has been initiated in ignorance of the risks, and of what might be done to deal with them.

“In future we need to ensure that risks have been adequately considered before we make policy announcements. We also need to be more open with the public, engaging them in our decision-making about risks and winning their trust.”

With a general election expected next year, the Cabinet Office and Treasury will in future vet all “significant” policy announcements and ministers will have to prepare a written assessment of the future “risks” of their proposals before they will be approved.

The prime minister’s warning about the need “to improve public services” comes as polls show a slump in confidence in the government. Philip Gould, Blair’s polling guru, is thought to have warned the prime minister recently that Labour’s election chances hinged on voters seeing the fruits of public sector reform.

Blair has been plagued by policy rows over top-up fees, foundation hospitals and immigration. But the bungled implementation of ill-considered policies has also alarmed No 10 and is the main focus of the 15-page leaked memo.

Whitehall insiders cite debacles such as the recent “reform” of the Criminal Records Bureau, which has been plagued by mistakes and delays; botched payments of tax credits to hundreds of thousands of people; and the privatisation of air traffic control undermined by the failure of a costly computer system.

The government’s poor handling of the foot and mouth crisis and the declining take-up of the MMR vaccine also proved to be expensive mistakes as initial policy reactions backfired. Key changes in the pipeline include a replacement for council tax, police reform and a £6 billion National Health Service electronic patient booking system. Blair’s memo was sent at the height of the row over immigration, three days before Beverley Hughes resigned as minister.

Entitled Improving Government Risk Handling and signed “Tony”, the memo will be seen as a tacit admission that the government has oversold policies and projects that have failed to deliver promised benefits. It reflects deepening concern within government over whether it can fulfil its promise to deliver better public services, a key battleground in the run-up to the election. Recent polls show that the number of people who think public services such as education, health and the police will improve under Labour has slumped to 33%.

In a separate memo to Prescott, Blair suggests cabinet ministers should take charge of replying to letters written to government departments by members of the public.

Blair says responding to comments and complaints offers a “tremendous opportunity to communicate our policies and messages” before the election, bypassing newspapers as their main source of information on government.

David Davis, shadow home secretary, said: “This call for caution is from the man who was the author of the ill-fated cashpoint fines system and whose announcement on television of a new asylum policy reduced our immigration system to a shambles.”

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