Cameron's ex-policy chief Steve Hilton 'excited' by Jeremy Corbyn election

David Cameron's former policy guru said he was "excited" by the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader on the back of a grassroots push against conventional politics.

Steve Hilton told the Press Association that the left-wing outsider's shock surge to victory was emblematic of the sort of "rejection of the old order" he believes is required to allow new ideas to flourish.

He criticised the "pretty unattractive" dismissal of Mr Corbyn as an outsider by fellow Westminster politicians and the media.

But he said Mr Corbyn had proved too incompetent as an opposition leader to be able fully to implement the kind of ideas - such as the Big Society - which Mr Hilton pushed during his time at Mr Cameron's side in Number 10.

"I was excited to see the expression of a grassroots rejection of the old order," he said of the veteran MP's defeat of established rivals for the top job.

"I found it, at the time, pretty unattractive the way that the insiders in Westminster - not just the politicians but the media as well - rounded on him for being different and for challenging the old way of doing things.

"Having said that, I think that what he hasn't done is followed through with any kind of competence in terms of being a credible leader of the opposition. And so I don't think that is in any way a good example of the kind of agenda I would like to see implemented

"But I think the impulse there was very much in line with the sort of feeling that we are losing power and control over the things that matter to us in society, in politics and government and we need to do something to take power back.

"It is reckless to ignore this popular dissatisfaction with the old order and unless we actually do something constructive, through the democratic process, you are going to see all sorts of less positive and less constructive responses."

Asked if he had given up hope of seeing his radical policy platform translated into action by Mr Cameron or any alternative Tory leader, he said: "In the end it comes down not to the choices people make or to the policies they implement or not, or how they behave, it is about dismantling the centralised bureaucratic system, shaking up and breaking up this way of running the world that I think is really dehumanising things and making people really angry."