Blair left Meacher off Earth Summit group

Tony Blair removed Michael Meacher from the British delegation to the Earth Summit in South Africa, senior Whitehall sources have revealed.

The Prime Minister ordered the list of ministerial delegates to be revised and not, as reported, his communications chief, Alastair Campbell. The news of Mr Blair's intervention infuriated green groups, which accused him of vindictiveness.

Charles Secrett, of Friends of the Earth, said: "Blair's meddling with Meacher confirms all our worst fears about what his real feelings about the environment are. This vindictive and petty attempt to keep the one minister who knows and cares about this agenda at home betrays the lack of judgement that comes in the lack of interest in this issue."

Mr Blair had to reinstate Mr Meacher after protests from environmental groups. Friends of the Earth even offered to pay Mr Meacher's fare. But several of Mr Meacher's officials have been denied places on the 70-strong official delegation, leading to fears that he will lack administrative support. Baroness Amos, the Foreign Office minister for Africa, was also told she could not go because of fears that the trip could be perceived as a junket.

Yesterday Downing Street said Mr Campbell was expected to accompany the Prime Minister and confirmed that reports that Mr Campbell had omitted Mr Meacher from the trip were "wrong". A senior Whitehall source told The Independent: "The Prime Minister cut him. It was about the size of the delegation. It wasn't Alastair Campbell ... He didn't have anything to do with it – it was Blair," he said.

Yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister publicly criticised an interview with Mr Meacher in The Sunday Times in which the minister attacked the Government's environmental record. John Prescott published a transcript of the interview and said Mr Meacher had been misrepresented.

"He puts his concerns and he expresses them, but not in the way The Sunday Times suggested," he said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.