David Cameron has come under fresh attack from one of his own backbenchers who says many of the Conservative Party's traditional supporters are "baffled" by some of his policies.
The Tory leader has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks over the direction of his leadership.
Former frontbencher Ann Winterton told the Parliamentary Monitor magazine that the recent row over grammar schools was an example of the leadership's inexperience.
"As a former grammar school girl I have always believed in diversity and selection in education and nothing that has been said by the leadership recently has changed my view," she said.
"There has been such a great outpouring of grief against it by people in the country and certainly from grassroots supporters and people who work for the party."
On his wider attempts to reform and reposition the party she is even more critical.
"Some of David Cameron's attempts to shift the Conservatives' direction have left much of the party's traditional support baffled," she told the magazine.
"They feel confused and concerned that some of the issues that they feel very concerned about are being swept to one side.
"People are willing to give him more time to establish what the policies will be at the time of the next general election but I am very concerned about the leadership of the party, and I don't just mean David Cameron."
With Cameron reshuffling his frontbench team, Winterton said that the party risks losing a fourth general election unless they change tactics against a Labour Party enjoying a 'Brown bounce'.
"I wonder whether they [the Conservative leadership] realise that the party will not be able to win the next general election unless we win back the five million people that deserted us in 1997?" she asked.
"They are overlooking the fact that the biggest single group of people that will vote at the next election are the older generation, those with grey hair who, on the whole, are conservative with a small 'c', have lived through good times and bad times and know the value of most things and do actually vote. It is vital that they are not neglected as the policies are formulated.
"Perhaps it would be a good idea to consult more widely amongst the party as a whole. David Cameron is young by parliamentary standards and many of those advising him are very young. I think that there is a learning curve and experience is a great teacher.
"I hope lessons have been learned and that this kind of thing will not happen again."
