Republicans 'gone off rails like Labour'

The Republican Party in the US has "gone off the rails... like Labour has in the UK", a leading election strategist has told Sky News' Murnaghan programme.

Jim Messina, who was Barack Obama's campaign manager in 2012 and advised the Tories ahead of their 2015 victory, said both the GOP's frontrunners - Donald Trump and Ted Cruz - lacked the wider support to win the race for the White House.

While the outspoken billionaire property tycoon had a vision, he upset voters "every time he opens up his mouth", said Mr Messina.

The strategist, who is campaigning for Hillary Clinton to secure the Democratic nomination, argued the Republicans had become dominated by the anti-establishment Tea Party movement.

Mr Messina was speaking just days before voting begins in the state-by-state contests to decide which candidate will represent their party in the November presidential election.

He said: "We are in unchartered territory here with the Republicans.

"Every single day they seem to make my day by saying crazier and crazier things.

"The two biggest frontrunners right now are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and neither one of them has any chance of winning a general election with the voters of America."

Of Trump, he said: "The problem is every time he opens up his mouth about his vision he upsets voters.

"I just saw a statistic that 47% of Americans are very opposed to Donald Trump's candidacy. That's not a winning recipe in a general election."

He added: "What you are seeing is a Republican Party who've gone off the rails a bit, much like Labour has in the UK, and are seemingly set on nominating people who can't win the general election.

"You have mainstream party of Conservatives in the UK that wins elections, that governs very well and unites the country. That's what David Cameron's modern party is doing.

"Unfortunately that's not the modern Republican Party that Ronald Reagan built 30 years ago.

"You have a modern Republican Party who is dominated by the Tea Party.

"They are letting an ideological base decide their voters."