Lord Butler has attacked the "centrally controlled" government in which the Cabinet makes "no decisions".

In an interview with the Spectator, the former Cabinet secretary also said that parliament does not have "sufficient control of the executive".

He said the government was introducing "a huge number of extremely bad bills, a huge amount of regulation and to do whatever it likes - and whatever it likes is what will get the best headlines tomorrow".

He criticised the prime minister's style of leadership, saying: "It isn't wise to listen only to special advisers, and not to listen to fuddy-duddy civil servants who may produce boringly inconvenient arguments."

Lord Butler added: "It is extraordinary and shameful that the House of Lords, which I am proud to be a member of but which is an unelected body, puts the inhibition on the will of the government [on Labour's law and order agenda] and it is a shameful thing that the House of Commons doesn't."

In response the prime minister's official spokesman said: "In terms of the prime minister's style of government, what the prime minister and the government should be judged by is the results it has achieved across a wide range of subjects."