Malta’s Prime Minister would do well to have an agenda that addresses the future if he hopes to win a second term in office, according to Alistair Campbell, the communication strategist behind former British prime minister Tony Blair.

“You can’t be liked by everyone... once you get into power you have to govern well to remain in power,” he said.

In a candid exchange on Times of Malta’s television programme Times Talk, Mr Campbell said he felt Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was “doing really well”.

Asked what advice he would give the government, which won by a landslide majority of 36,000 votes, Mr Campbell urged Dr Muscat to have an agenda that addressed the future if he hoped to win a second term in office.

On the Opposition, Mr Campbell said the Nationalist Party would not necessarily have to build itself from scratch but that a winner was a loser who best understood defeat.

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spokesman, appeared on Times Talk last night.

Mr Campbell, who is in Malta to address today’s Ernst and Young’s Malta Attractiveness Survey conference, also spoke of his support for the EU during the animated debate.

He said that after meeting with a number of Maltese Labour Party ministers yesterday he was pleased to see that the issue of whether to join the EU was done and dusted in Malta. Malta’s path to the EU referendum in 2003 had been fraught with division and Mr Campbell feared the same would happen in the UK if British Prime Minister David Cameron won next year’s election and would have to deliver on his pledge for an in/out referendum.

“I think if a referendum was held the in-vote would win, but even just discussing whether we should be in or out is going to paralyse the country,” he said.

“Cameron is pandering to right-wing factions within the Conservative party instead of fighting for his belief that Britain should remain strong in Europe,” he said.

Asked if he believed Ukip leader Nigel Farage posed a threat, Mr Campbell said that instead of pandering to his political arguments Mr Cameron should challenge his agenda.

“You have to engage the people who are dissatisfied and persuade them that they’re listening to utter nonsense when they’re told how Brussels wants to ban the British army and bent cucumbers,” he said, adding that presenting solid arguments had come up trumps in the Scottish referendum last month. He also criticised the incessant anti-EU propaganda in the British media, which he felt Mr Cameron was pandering to, adding it was “absolutely crazy” to hold a referendum.

Mr Campbell, who as Mr Blair’s right-hand man had earned a reputation for spinning – his preferred word is “neutralising” – the media, said it was crucial for politicians to appreciate that with the advent of social media newspapers no longer set the agenda.

“All you can do today is control what you say, which is incredibly liberating. That old prism is gone and you have to harness the changes,” he said.

The man widely believed to be the brains behind Mr Blair’s three major electoral victories in the UK also spoke at length about his role in the Iraq war and the controversial decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein.

Mr Campbell had played a key role in drawing up his government’s 2002 dossier on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

He also gave a frank account of his battle with depression when he was still a journalist and his determination to lift the stigma surrounding mental health.

“After drowning my brain in alcohol… I have gained resilience.

“Now when I’m going through a difficult period I go to a quiet corner and ask myself, is this as bad as when I cracked up? It isn’t!”