IF there's been a worse week for the Conservative Party in recent times, I can't think of one.

You have to go back to the early 1990s and the "back to basics" affair under John Major to equal last week's collision of damaging events. And that wasn't really comparable because it largely involved sexual impropriety, rather than a toxic brew of financial sleaze, class politics and ministerial incompetence.

It's difficult to know where to begin – but Francis Maude's jerry-can moment is as good as any. The Cabinet Office Minister stood accused of endangering public safety by advising motorists to keep a jerry can of petrol in case of fuel shortages over Easter caused by the tanker drivers' dispute. After firefighters and the AA condemned the idea, the Government suggested that people should keep their car petrol tanks topped up instead. This caused a nationwide panic, a 172% increase in demand and empty petrol stations across the land. Thus were created the very shortages that Maude should have been trying to avoid. On Friday, tragedy followed farce as a Yorkshire woman received 40% burns while decanting petrol in her kitchen.

Labour accused the Government of playing politics with the tanker drivers' dispute, and it is hard not to agree. There was little real likelihood of industrial action taking place before the Easter holidays since talks at Acas, the arbitration and conciliation service, hadn't even begun when the panic button was pressed in Number 10. Perhaps they were trying to send a tough message to the tanker drivers' union, Unite; perhaps they were trying to divert public attention from the bad news hitting the Government in the wake of the Budget. It was probably a bit of both, but it was also news management gone terribly wrong. As it did in the Budget.

Chancellor George Osborne's scrapping of the 50p tax band revived folk memories of the Conservatives as the party of the rich. There they were – Eton-educated, Bullingdon Club Tories rewarding their pals in the City, revealing their true priorities, and robbing pensioners of their age-related personal allowances to pay for it. Any competent spin-doctor should have noticed the "granny tax" tucked away in the Budget speech and forewarned the Chancellor of the headlines it would generate. But something seems to be seriously wrong with the political antennae in Number 10. The situation was made worse by Osborne claiming improbably that he would not benefit from the tax cut, despite his £135,000 ministerial salary, his London rental property and 25% share in the family wallpaper firm, Osborne & Little.

It took a few days for the other budgetary blunders, such as the hot pasty tax, to emerge from the fog of recrimination over the granny tax. Slapping VAT on hot food may have seemed a relatively trivial measure, and arguably resolved an anomaly whereby hot curry takeaways are taxed while hot food taken from supermarkets is not. But this was one anomaly best left alone. White-van-man was angered by the 20% hike in his lunchtime pasty, and The Sun newspaper – which has turned against the Tories big time – gave vent to his fury. Again the Tories looked like privileged politicians out of touch with real people's lives. It was said that Treasury civil servants had to advise Chancellor Osborne that a pasty was like a mini boeuf en croute. Apocryphal perhaps, but it chimes with what people are thinking.

And what people are thinking is that it's the same old Tories, the party of the rich, the upper crust, the boardroom rather than the shop floor – an image reinforced by the latest cash-for-access scandal. Sunday Times journalists posing as foreign businessmen recorded the top Tory fundraiser, Peter Cruddas, boasting about the access to Cabinet ministers that could be bought for £250,000 – the "premier league" of donations. He suggested that money could influence policy and said that a big donation would be "awesome for their business". Cruddas resigned almost immediately, but the damage was already done. It seemed incredible that the Tories could have fallen for this journalist sting. It was similar to the cash-for-questions scandal in the mid-1990s in which Tory MPs agreed to ask questions in Parliament in exchange for money.

"Cam Dine With Me", said the headlines, as the PM was compelled to reveal his dinner guests. At the very least, Prime Minister David Cameron's judgment is under question since he hired Peter Cruddas, a spread-betting multimillionaire, as party treasurer – a senior post. The PM must also take overall responsibility for the handling of the tanker drivers' non-strike, since he convened the Cabinet emergency COBRA committee to deal with it. And, of course, Osborne could not have cut the 50p tax had his boss not given the OK.

By the middle of last week, Labour were registering a 10% lead in the ComRes opinion poll, which also showed that 66% thought the Budget was for the rich. Of course, this is early days for the Coalition Government, and with Ed Miliband still failing to win hearts and minds, it is too soon to say Labour are back in contention – especially after their disaster in the Bradford West by-election. But it will take a lot of hard work to undo the damage of the past 11 days. It doesn't take much for voters to lose confidence in a government, and when it's gone, it's gone.