Blair's Mouthpiece QUITS:
politics.guardian.co.uk
Campbell quits
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Friday August 29, 2003
Alastair Campbell has announced he is to leave his Downing
Street job in a shock move mid-way through the Hutton inquiry.
His place will be taken by David Hill, a former director of
communications for the Labour party.
Despite early indications that Tony Blair's director of
communications would be exonerated by the judicial inquiry, it
was always suspected he would leave the government after the
affair.
Mr Campbell said: "It has been an enormous privilege to work so
closely in opposition and in government for someone I believe
history will judge as a great transforming prime minister."
Mr Blair described Mr Campbell as "an immensely able,
fearless, loyal servant of the cause he believes in who was
dedicated not only to that cause but to his country ... he was,
is, and will remain a good friend."
In his resignation statement he said his family had paid a price
for his role and said his partner, Fiona Millar, would be leaving
No 10 at the same time "in a few weeks". Mr Campbell said he
did not want to take on "another big job" but hoped to write,
broadcast and make speeches.
Mr Campbell revealed he had wanted to leave last summer, but
had stayed in the post for the Iraq crisis.
He said: "My family, friends and close colleagues know that I
have been thinking for some time about leaving my position as
director of communications and strategy.
"I had intended to leave last summer but as the Iraq issue
developed, the prime minister asked me to stay on to oversee
government communications on Iraq, and I was happy to do so."
Mr Campbell said he and Mr Blair agreed on April 7 that he
would leave this summer.
"I have now given the prime minister formal notice of my decision
to leave," he added.
He was announcing the decision today because it would not
have been appropriate to do so when the Hutton inquiry was
sitting.
"I shall of course continue to be available to assist his inquiry in
any way he wishes.
"I will also be available in the next few weeks to assist the
handover to my successor, who will be announced shortly."
So far Mr Campbell's version of events - that he did not "sex up"
the September dossier cataloguing Iraq's alleged WMD
programmes - has been backed up by John Scarlett, the head of
the joint intelligence committee.
That makes it more likely that Mr Campbell may be exonerated
in his war with the BBC over the controversial story by the
BBC's Andrew Gilligan - as he was by the foreign affairs select
committee, albeit on a split vote with a Labour majority.
However, the former political editor of the Daily Mirror - who
joined Tony Blair's staff after he became Labour leader in 1994 -
has become the centre of criticism about the government's
preoccupation with spin and media presentation for at least the
past three years.
Indeed, he allowed a BBC documentary by Michael Cockrell to
film him in action, briefing the lobby and advising the prime
minister, in 2000.
After that, and before the 2001 general election, he opted to take
a behind the scenes role as the government's director of
communications, whilst two other spokesmen did the twice-daily
lobby briefings.
A hardened political bruiser - and close ally of Neil Kinnock
while he was still a journalist - Mr Campbell was often seen as
the "dark side" of the more charming Mr Blair in a "good cop/bad
cop" routine. He softened his favourite adjective for stories he
believed to be inaccurate from "bollocks" to "garbage" for the
benefit of the TV cameras.
An original part of the New Labour project - along with Peter
Mandelson and Gordon Brown - his departure leaves room for
speculation about both his next job, and his famous diaries.
Although Mr Campbell told Lord Hutton he kept a diary as an
aide-memoire and it was "not intended for publication", most
Westminster insiders predict it will be his pension, commanding
a publishing deal of around £1m.
While working as a reporter in the 1980s he suffered a nervous
breakdown and subsequently gave up drink.
More recently Mr Cambpell hit the headlines for non-political
reasons, when he ran the London marathon in aid of research
into Leukemia - a disease which killed one of his best friends. |
