Letter: Difficult Labour

Sir: On Monday 1 June you led the paper with a story about a report on welfare by Gordon Brown which you said showed up differences between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. At my morning briefing that day, I pointed out that the report was actually the product of the Labour Party's Joint Policy Committee, of which the Prime Minister is chairman. In your feature on the Prime Minister and the Chancellor ("An insider's guide to the rival wings of New Labour", 2 June), your reporter referred to my "rebuttal" of Monday's story. It would have been more honest to spell out what the rebuttal was, difficult though it is for newspapers to admit their stories are wrong.

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL

10 Downing Street

London SW1