In a speech reflecting on life outside the Cabinet, David Blunkett has said most of the country has "no idea" what the government is doing.

The former home secretary also called for Labour to present a "different style of manifesto", making less use of statistics while being more honest about the challenges ahead.

Delivering the Joseph Chamberlain lecture at the Balsall heath forum in Birmingham, Blunkett stressed the need for ministers to stay in touch with the concerns of the public.

"It has been a funny feeling being out of office these last few months," he said.

"I have been grateful for the many kind wishes that I have received from my friends and from well wishers.

"There are very few advantages in being out of the Cabinet. But one positive benefit has been that I have had more time to think and reflect."

Pressures of government

Blunkett said that ministers were working hard to improve people's lives.

"But sometimes our closeness to the Westminster village means it is harder to get things in perspective," he accepted.

The backbench MP said his Sheffield constituency kept him "grounded" in the concerns of ordinary people.

But he said that "dealing with the pressures of government and the running of a department of state leaves too few opportunities to engage with ordinary people on a regular basis".

"I took the whole of my ministerial team and officials around the country and I believe this was appreciated and helped us to shape policy which was relevant to the issues that people in the neighbourhoods we visited took seriously," he said.

"So given the existing deep cynicism about politics and politicians and the fact that any government after two terms will have both upset people and disappointed people, how do we proceed from here?

"I believe that a first step should be a different style of manifesto, with fewer statistics and a greater presentation of the challenges, coupled with a reflection on what the 'big conversation' brought to British politics."

Westminster village

Blunkett also called for a "sense of perspective" about the issues facing the country and the attention paid to politicians.

"Only when one leaves the Westminster village does it become clear how little attention most people pay to what politicians say or do," he said.

"Most people simply get on with their lives. They are far more concerned with bringing up a family and earning a living than debating the rights and wrongs of the latest Whitehall policy or Westminster controversy.

"It is a salutary experience to rediscover how little of what government is thinking, pronouncing and doing reaches the public, or even the backbenchers.

"This is not for want of effort to communicate, but simply because being on the inside gives you a perspective on issues which people outside simply do not get.

"So, as a busy Cabinet minister, you presume the rest of the world knows not only what you are doing but why you are doing it.

"The truth is that on the whole they have no idea."

Political issues

While not blaming media coverage of politics he added that the public is "a lot smarter than some in the media or many politicians think".

"They get the messages very quickly and understand them better than some people writing about politics give them credit for," Blunkett said.

"But it is necessary to understand the challenge we face if we are to reconnect politics and politicians with the lives of those for whom politics passes them by."

He added that the central issue: "Is not simply whether people know that politics matters to their lives.

"Neither is it about people liking politicians either.

"Rather it is about more people recognising that politics is about their lives - that decisions on how much is raised and spent, where it is spent and whose lives are changed, are what politics is all about.

"And it is around the issue of change that modern government and a new relationship with government can take hold."

Audit role

Stressing the importance of politics to the "vast bulk of people", Blunkett said politicians should "tell it as it is".

He said they should "try to be honest in answering questions and presenting facts - and explaining why we make the decisions we do".

"We must be honest enough to explain to people that politicians are not magicians. We cannot simply wave a magic wand."

The MP also mooted an audit of the way public resources are spent in each locality, providing a mechanism for allowing people "to take hold and to reshape their lives and that of their community".