Sir Bernard Ingham, who was at the Masonic Hall in Wolverhampton to speak to the city’s Ladies’ Luncheon Club, told the Express & Star that if there were more leaders like the Iron Lady these days, the country would be in a better state.

Sir Bernard said: “She was an absolutely model prime minister from my point of view. She didn’t mind what the media said. She knew her own mind and didn’t change it.

“She left me to get on with my job, and you can’t ask for better than that.

“The politicians today are paranoid about the media. One of her great qualities was that she didn’t want to be loved.”

Sir Bernard said today’s leaders would be respected more if they worried less about being popular.

On new Tory leader David Cameron, he said: “He is trying to be too nice and cuddly. We don’t need that. What we need is effective politicians.

“Cameron is in a difficult position. We are at least three years away from a general election and he would be mad to come out with detailed policies now.

“But I do think people need to feel a lot more sure about where he is going.”

But he doesn’t go along with the suggestion Mr Cameron is seeking to cast himself as the new Tony Blair.

The Prime Minister came in for stinging criticism. Sir Bernard said: “I don’t think anybody could be as bad or as useless as Tony Blair. He does reflect this concentration on perception rather than substance.”

And the spin doctors didn’t escape Sir Bernard’s criticism either.

“One of the terrible consequences of spin is that the public just can’t trust politicians anymore, he said.