The Conservative Party was still viewed as “unreformed and grumpy”, a senior Tory said yesterday.

Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, admitted that David Cameron was popular because he “is not just a Conservative like any other”.

He acknowledged the importance of the Tory leader’s public relations skills, but felt that they should not distract the party from the big issues.

“The public gets that David Cameron is not just a Conservative like any other, and they like that,” he told London’s Evening Standard. “But a lot of people still see him as a star centre forward imported to an otherwise unreformed and grumpy team. We need to maintain a sense of policy seriousness.”

His remarks echo those made by Theresa May several years ago when she was chairman of the party. She said that people viewed the Tories as the “nasty party”, which landed her in trouble with some colleagues.

Mr Gove said that Mr Cameron was at ease in the media spotlight, unlike Gordon Brown, who has been criticised for wearing a formal jacket and shirt on holiday in Suffolk. “It is better to have a leader who is good at PR to one who wears the wrong clothes when he goes to East Anglia. Image is important, but it shouldn’t distract us from the big arguments.”

Labour said the remarks proved that Mr Cameron had put “shallow salesmanship” ahead of political substance.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said: “Even his own Shadow Cabinet knows that David Cameron is all about slick PR and not substance. David Cameron has simply put a new gloss on a completely unreformed Conservative Party. While [he] provides the PR, it is his unreformed and grumpy team that are setting the same old Tory policy agenda.”

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