Blair's spin doctor labelled control freak

ALASTAIR Campbell, the Prime Minister's press secretary, displayed a "control freak" tendency in the Government when he ticked off two ministers by fax, a senior backbench MP said yesterday.

Mr Campbell is expected to be asked about the incident when he appears before the Commons Public Administration Committee after Easter.

The chairman of the committee, Rhodri Morgan, said the message in the faxes was: "There is only one spin doctor round here and that's me ..."

"He doesn't want freelance spin doctoring by individual ministers," Mr Morgan said.

In a radio interview, Mr Morgan said the leaked memos to Harriet Harman, the Secretary of State for Social Security, and her deputy Frank Field should perhaps have been worded differently.

In them, Mr Campbell urged the ministers to "enter a period of pre-Budget purdah" and to be careful about lunches with reporters. He also asked why three interviews given by Ms Harman were not cleared through his office.

"Alastair Campbell is a temporary civil servant talking down to ministers and administering a ticking off in this way - unless he had the full authority of the Prime Minister.

"If I had been a minister I think I would have been pretty upset about the tone of those, unless the first line was `Tony Blair has told me to tell you that you're quarrelling in public and it's time you stopped it, you're playing around like children, and I am administering this ticking off on behalf of the Prime Minister'," Mr Morgan said.

Asked what the committee would ask Mr Campbell about, Mr Morgan said: "We will be asking the obvious question that everybody will want to know: to what extent should civil servants such as him write letters like this to ministers unless they have the full authority of the Prime Minister?

"And if they do have the full authority of the Prime Minister, wouldn't it be better if the memo actually states it?"

He added: "There is obviously a control freak tendency in the new Labour government, but on the other hand, how can a bunch of control freaks, if that's what you think they are, have devolved power to Wales and Scotland and shortly to London?"

After the revelation appeared in newspapers on Sunday Mr Field said that he had been "told off" by Mr Campbell. He had felt it necessary to take the matter seriously as it had been raised by such a senior person, he said, though he had considered returning the memo with its English corrected.

Mr Campbell appeared unrattled by the publicity yesterday. Asked if he was surprised to find that two of his memos had found their way into the press, he replied: "Nothing ever surprises or concerns me. Or at least, nothing ever surprises me."