BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown will be told by senior Labour figures this week that he must clean up Downing Street if Labour is to have a chance of winning the next election.
The call is expected following the departure of his aide, Damian McBride, who proposed a smear campaign against Tory leader David Cameron.
As a “furious” Cameron demanded a personal apology from the prime minister, one senior Labour figure warned the party had suffered “reputational damage”.
Mr McBride, a senior Brown aide dating back to the prime minister’s time as chancellor, resigned on Saturday after the political blogger Guido Fawkes uncovered a series of e-mails outlining plans for a smear campaign against senior Tories.
The prime minister’s adviser proposed articles for a New Labour-supporting website, to be called Red Rag, to “destabilise” the Tories. McBride’s ideas, which he e-mailed to Derek Draper, the former adviser to Lord Mandelson, who runs the LabourList website, suggested a series of unsubstantiated stories.
These ranged from spreading gossip that Mr Cameron had suffered an embarrassing medical condition to starting rumours that shadow chancellor George Osborne, once photographed with a prostitute, is haunted by further embarrassing pictures from his past which have yet to emerge.
Senior Labour figures are planning to tell Mr Brown this week that such behaviour cannot be repeated if Labour is to win the general election.
One key figure said: “Damian McBride and his cohorts belong to Gordon’s past . . . They are not fit to serve any prime minister and certainly not in the modern communications age. Labour has suffered reputational damage.”
Mr Brown had no idea that Mr McBride, who initially worked for him as communications director at the treasury before becoming a political media adviser, had written the e-mails.
“Gordon had no idea what Damian was up to,” one minister said. “Gordon is appalled.”
But Cameron last night rejected Downing Street’s defence – that the e-mails were a “juvenile” prank by Mr McBride which signified nothing because the smear campaign, and the Red Rag website, were dropped.
Tory spokesman on foreign affairs William Hague did a round of television interviews last night to voice his party leader’s anger. “Fair-minded people across politics, and people of no political persuasion at all, will see it as a deeply depressing sign of the priorities of Downing Street and of the British government at the moment,” he told Sky television.
Mr Brown will also be told by senior Labour figures that he could have avoided the row if he had abided by a commitment to move Mr McBride to one side last October. He was moved from his position as Mr Brown's political media briefer after what was described as a "cabinet revolt against McBride's activities". – ( Guardianservice)