The previous Labour government lost the confidence of voters because it was addicted to the "crack cocaine" of courting the media rather than listening to the public, Tessa Jowell has said.
The shadow Olympics minister admitted that even today "nobody is listening" to the opposition party because of the erosion of public trust on issues including the economy, welfare and immigration and social responsibility.
She also blamed the way politics has become "like a private conversation between Westminster media and Westminster politicians" with voters just "eavesdroppers".
Ms Jowell told the Independent on Sunday: "What we've got to accept is that in the country more widely, nobody is listening. The biggest battle that Labour has at the moment is to be relevant and to be heard... For so many people, it's just white noise."
Ms Jowell said she believed Labour should have taken a harder line with Rupert Murdoch's News International following allegations of phone hacking when the party was in power.
The senior member of Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet, who was a hacking victim herself, added: "I think that the mistake that we made - it's a bit like the crack cocaine of politics, isn't it? Getting a good write-up, or the horror of a bad write-up.
"At its worst, Westminster politics is like a private conversation between Westminster media and Westminster politicians, and the rest of the world are eavesdroppers on a private conversation, and that's got to change."
In a separate interview with the BBC, the minister said families were "withdrawing from the relevance of politics and believing that they have to fend for themselves" adding that the party's annual conference was an opportunity to get Labour's message out to people.
