Lord Peter Mandelson has asserted that Labour leader Ed Miliband is "struggling" with the task of steering the party back into Downing Street.
The gay politician made the comments yesterday.
“It’s a good thing that the general election is not taking place
tomorrow, and we are a long way off from a change of government, it
would seem," he told the BBC.
He also added that he needs time to repair his image with voters.
“So he has plenty of time to repair his image, repair his standing
and persuade the public he is a credible future Prime Minister. I
believe he can do that.”
It comes as Miliband faces more claims he is sending mixed messages over his party’s welfare policies.
During Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Mandelson also implied that Labour still needed to repair the economic situation handed-down to the coalition government.
"He’s struggling with two things. One is that he is trying to oppose the Government on the economy where, legitimately or not, people will take different views.
"He is also sort of struggling with his own inherited legacy from the previous Labour government and they are not doing that easily or finely but nor is it simple to do.
"At exactly the same time he is struggling to invent a new left of centre political paradigm that isn’t New Labour … to sort of invent a new left of centre politics for the 21st century."
He added: "It’s a rather unenviable job which I think he is doing well in the circumstances but it is not easy."