Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman has attacked the Conservative election campaign, labelling it 'woeful'.

He also hit out at the manifesto writing process, calling it 'shambolic' and an 'undemocratic concentration of power in the hands of a narrow inner circle'.

Mr Freeman is the chairman of the prime minister's Backbench Policy Board and expected he would have been consulted on the draft manifesto.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said: 'When a manifesto is produced without having even being seen by ministers (or myself as chairman of the prime minister's Backbench Policy Board) it shows a fatal contempt for Parliamentary opinion.'

He added that the Tories now need to set about formulating a 'positive 'offer' for public service reform and leadership and for the under 30s which reflects their reality on lack of affordable housing'.

He added that government must now prove it had listened to the electorate.