Damian McBride: Former Gordon Brown spin doctor set for surprise return to frontline politics

Mr McBride will act as communications advisor for Labour's Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry

Damian McBride, pictured giving a television interview in 2013 (Getty Images)

Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor Damian McBride is to make a surprise return to frontline politics working for Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry.

Mr McBride, who resigned from No10 in 2009 following attempts to smear Conservative politicians, will act as a communications advisor for the duration of Labour’s high-stakes defence policy review, which will determine the party leadership’s stance on the Trident nuclear weapons system.

The issue is one of most divisive facing the Labour Party, with leader Jeremy Corbyn staunchly backing unilateral nuclear disarmament, while many of his cabinet and MPs back the Government’s plans to replace the Trident system.

According to the Huffington Post, Mr McBride responded to a Labour advert for the post, and will be on a fixed contract that ends before the Labour party conference this autumn, when Trident is set to be debated.

Mr McBride has publicly backed Mr Corbyn’s anti-Trident stance, but has also accused the Labour leader of being “incapable of persuading a single non-Labour voter” to back him on Trident and other key issues.

Ms Thornberry, who has supported unilateralism, has already faced severe criticism from fellow Labour MPs since being appointed to the defence post in a New Year reshuffle, most recently during a heated Parliamentary Labour Party meeting.

Mr McBride’s resignation from Downing Street followed revelations that he had discussed plans to use an attack blog to spread false rumours about the personal lives of David Cameron, George Osborne and other Tory MPs.

Downing Street apologised at the time and Mr McBride has kept out of frontline politics since.

He has however, maintained a public profile and said in September that there were alternative nuclear deterrents systems that could be cheaper than Trident.