What a bunch of amoral creeps

Poison at the heart of Labour: Damaging questions for Miliband and Balls as explosive book reveals Brown's spin doctor ran smear campaigns from Downing Street

• Damian McBride helped drive Gordon Brown's rivals out of Cabinet
• Spin doctor says he discredited opponents by tipping off newspapers 
• The book will hugely embarrass Ed Miliband and Ed Balls
• Mr McBride forced to resign as Mr Brown’s special adviser in 2009 
• Linked to a plot to smear Tory MPs via an anti-Conservative gossip website

The toxic culture of spin, smears and feuding at the heart of New Labour is laid bare today in an explosive political memoir.

Damian McBride confesses to helping Gordon Brown drive his leading rivals out of the Cabinet by using the dark arts of media manipulation.

In the disturbingly candid book, serialised in the Daily Mail, the spin doctor says he routinely discredited opponents by tipping off newspapers about ‘drug use, spousal abuse, alcoholism and extra-marital affairs’. 

Coming from a figure so central to Mr Brown’s political operation, the book will hugely embarrass Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, the former prime minister’s two closest allies.

The pair were in constant contact with Mr McBride, raising urgent questions over what they knew of his brutal tactics. 

The memoir will send shockwaves through the Labour party ahead of next week’s annual conference.

The key revelations it contains include:

• Mr McBride helped destroy Home Secretary Charles Clarke by fabricating a briefing war between him and a key adviser to Tony Blair;
• Another obstacle to Mr Brown, John Reid, quit the same Cabinet post after Mr McBride leaked details of his alleged ‘drinking, fighting and carousing’;
• Allegations about another minister, Ivan Lewis, pestering a female aide were leaked to punish him for criticising Mr Brown’s tax policies;
• Mr McBride confesses to logging in to Mr Brown’s office email and leaking details of restricted or confidential documents to discredit opponents;
• Mr Brown developed an elaborate ‘political intelligence operation’ with ‘moles’ on the teams of rival ministers; 
• Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander knifed his own sister Wendy, the Scottish Labour leader, urging her dismissal over a minor donations controversy;
• As his premiership faltered, Mr Brown desperately tried to recruit celebrity advisers including Simon Cowell, Lorraine Kelly, Fiona Phillips and Lord Sugar.      

Mr McBride was forced to resign as Mr Brown’s special adviser in 2009 after he was linked to a plot to smear Tory MPs via an anti-Conservative gossip website. The emails included fabricated slurs about the politicians’ health and private lives.

 

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