His memoirs, serialised in the Mail, convulsed Westminster. Now Gordon Brown's spin doctor gives his withering verdict on the two Eds: Paranoid, confused, and their policies are a great, steaming pile of fudge Daily Mail

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

  Damian McBride claims Miliband and Balls run 'dysfunctional' Labour Party

  They're confused, lacking clear policies and a target audience, he claims 

  Says Labour could win by treating election like a Gordon Brown-era Budget 

Just nine months before the next General Election, the Labour Party has no positive messages to communicate to anyone about why they should vote for them. It has no policies which will persuade them, and no clear idea who its target audience is. And it’s being run in a totally dysfunctional way.

So how do the two Eds - Miliband and Balls - do it? How do they overcome historical precedent, a hostile media, a sceptical public and a nervous Party, and return Labour to power in 2015?

To my mind, it’s simple: the two Eds have to stop thinking of next year in terms of an election, and start thinking of it like one of those Gordon Brown Budgets they used to work on together.

I cannot recall one Labour policy announcement over the past year that performs those feats. Ed Miliband’s measures - rent controls or an energy price freeze - are usually populist enough but rarely stand up to scrutiny. Ed Balls’ announcements (such as his national infrastructure commission) usually pass the FT test but go entirely unnoticed in the pub.

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Parking cowboys hit cancer victims: Now scandal of 'disgraceful' fines spreads to NHS hospitals Daily Mail

A legitimate Penalty Charge Notice: Rogue parking firms hand out cynically similar 'Parking Charge Notices' which do not have the same standing as official fines, but are followed up with letters threatening court action

  Rogue wardens have allegedly been told to focus efforts on cancer wards 

  Whistleblower claims he was told to 'give tickets regardless of any illness'

  Politicians and campaigners call for crackdown on rogue parking firms

Cancer patients undergoing life-saving chemotherapy are being targeted by ‘cowboy’ parking squads at NHS hospitals, it was claimed last night.

Rogue wardens working on hospital grounds have allegedly been ordered to focus on cancer wards because patients are likely to be distracted – and therefore late returning to their cars.

Hospitals were last night accused of encouraging the ‘disgraceful’ tactic, with some trusts even taking a cut of up to 10 per cent of the parking firms’ huge profits.

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'No clear idea' and a 'steaming pile of fudge': Ed Miliband under extraordinary attack from Gordon Brown's key aide who warns Labour election plan is 'totally dysfunctional' Daily Mail

Ed Miliband

·        Labour leader failing to communicate with voters, Damian McBride claims

·        Former spin doctor says Mr Miliband has no persuasive policies

·        Also attacked Labour's refusal to apologise for its record in office

·        Today's attack comes in updated version of McBride's tell-all memoirs

·        He was spin doctor for Gordon Brown but quit over a plot to smear Tories

  Ed Miliband’s ‘totally dysfunctional’ leadership tonight comes under extraordinary attack from former Labour spin doctor Damian McBride.

In an updated version of his sensational tell-all memoirs, Mr McBride warns Labour has ‘no clear idea’ of who it is trying to appeal to and a ‘great, steaming pile of fudge’ instead of key policies.

He says Mr Miliband, with whom he worked for years in the Treasury, has ‘managed to blend the worst of Tony Blair’s “me against the world” isolation with the worst of Gordon Brown’s “they’re out to get me” paranoia.’

In an apparent swipe at Ed Balls, another former ally, he says Labour has yet to persuade voters that ‘we’ve learnt our lesson’ by admitting where ‘the last government screwed up’.

The shadow Chancellor has resisted all advice to concede Labour’s mistakes during its 13 years in power.

Mr McBride concludes: ‘Labour currently has no clear idea who its target audience is, no positive messages to communicate to anyone about why they should vote for the party, no policies which will persuade them, and is being run in a totally dysfunctional way.’

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'Most people are worse off under the Tories': Britons have experienced their biggest fall in earnings since 1874, claims Labour's Ed Balls

Labour revives plans for 15% death tax for estates of the deceased, provoking outcry from Tories who claim 'pensioners deserve better'