Alastair Campbell has claimed Labour under Jeremy Corbyn was “asleep on the job” as he outlined why he no longer wanted to be part of the party.
Tony Blair’s former director of communications was expelled from the party in May after admitting voting Lib Dem in the European elections as a protest and had planned to appeal against the decision.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Tuesday morning, he said Corbyn “has got to look deep into himself and say is he up to the job, is he up to the challenge”.
“If not, we are heading to a very dark, dangerous place with an unbelievably right-wing, populist government and the answer to which is not a populism of the left,” he said.
Campbell, a People’s Vote campaigner, said he believed Labour was now facing an “existential crisis”.
He said the party had been “been taken over by people who until recently were Communists, they were Stalinists”.
“Let’s stop pretending that this is the Labour Party that we really believe in,” he said.
“I think there is a danger that we’re going to be destroyed as a serious credible political force unless we face up to the reality of what’s going on.”
But Campbell said despite voting for the Lib Dems he would not be joining the party led by Jo Swinson - which has enjoyed a surge in support thanks to its pro-EU position.
Last week Blair himself side-stepped questions about whether he will vote Labour at the next general election.
Pressed three times on the matter on BBC2′s Newsnight, the closest he came to giving an endorsement to the party he led to three election victories was that he “wants” to vote Labour.