Ex-Tory Chancellor George Osborne has told moaning Tories to “stop blaming” the Whitehall “blob” for their own mess.
The Conservative stalwart, who unleashed devastating austerity cuts in 2010, told a Tory event: “We are in charge of our country’s destiny and we should stop blaming others if we don’t get things right.”
A host of Tories including Cabinet ministers have tried to blame the “blob” for problems gripping the country.
The term the “blob” has long been used by Conservatives to criticise lawyers, regulators, trades’ unions, civil servants and quangos for slow progress on reform.
Michael Gove regularly used the term to slam striking teachers when he was Education Secretary in 2013.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman recently faced a fierce backlash after blaming "an activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party" for blocking attempts to tackle illegal migration.
She was accused of potentially breaking ministerial rules by questioning the impartiality of public servants over the comments made in an email to Conservative members in March.
Speaking at a conference of Northern Tory MPs, Mr Osborne said the party had been in office for 13 years and so “can't be blaming other people for an inability to get things done”.
He said he was “personally very sceptical” of saying “it's all the fault of someone else” if things can't be done.
“We’re the Government and it's up to us to get things done,” he added.
“There are some Conservatives who sort of blame the ‘blob’ and the civil servants and the establishment.
"We have been in office since 2010. We are in charge of our country’s destiny and we should stop blaming others if we don’t get things right.
“Government is about making things happen and it is not enough to just give a speech or have an idea.
"Successful politicians are the ones who can take ideas and turn them into practical things that happen on the ground, which is why I am an admirer of Rishi Sunak because he takes the job of Prime Minister seriously and he takes a good idea and he works hard to actually make it happen on the ground.
“I am not a believer that there are innumerable obstacles to things happening.”
Mr Sunak later addressed his party’s Northern MPs as he aimed to quell backbench fears over Tory fortunes in the Red Wall.
In a surprise speech just hours after jetting back from Washington DC, the PM told a packed exhibition hall there is "no route to electoral success" for the Tories without the North.
He said: "This is a Government and a party that is absolutely committed to John's (Northern Research Group chairman John Stevenson) vision and indeed the North.
"And we know that our majority runs through the North and that there is no route to electoral success without you."
He acknowledged calls for a minister for the North but declared himself "a Prime Minister for the North".
Northern Research Group founder and former Tory party chairman Sir Jake Berry thanked Mr Sunak for his speech and told delegates at its conference: "It's time to blow-up blobonomics".
He said: "To truly level up the North, we need to be brave-enough in our manifesto to tackle the greatest enemy of change, orthodoxy in Whitehall and inertia, or 'the blob' as Michael Gove once called it.
"It has to be a plan to break-up the political and social influence of the blob - or blobonomics, as I call it."
The MP for Rossendale and Darwen said: "Blobonomics for decades, under successive governments, but especially under the Labour government, has been happy to manage decline in the North of England, failing to spread wealth North of London, unfairly distributing opportunity around our nation."
He said: "Blobonmomics has failed the North and its people, so, to deliver for the North we have to be brave enough to say we will scrap this broken model.
"Put it simply, it's time to blow-up blobonomics."
An increasingly powerful Tory faction, the NRG was set up to bolster support among Red Wall voters ahead of a general election.
After 13 years in power, the Tories are staring down the barrel of a Labour victory next year, with dozens of nervy Conservative MPs already deciding to stand down at the next election.
Asked about rumours Boris Johnson could attempt a comeback, Mr Osborne said: “There are parts of Boris Johnson that I admire. I like his kind of optimism and his generosity.
“But there are also things that he proved not to be very good at and one of them was actually implementing things in government and I personally think the Conservative Party has decided to move on from Boris Johnson.
"Whether Boris Johnson has decided to move from the Conservative Party is only something he can know."
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