Jowell: Gordon Brown was 'agent' of malign briefing

An ex-Labour minister has accused Gordon Brown of allowing a culture of "malign and awful" briefing against colleagues when he was chancellor.

Dame Tessa Jowell said revelations by Mr Brown's former spin doctor about how he routinely tried to discredit the ex-prime minister's rivals were "vile".

Damian McBride says he smeared Charles Clarke and John Reid among others as Mr Brown sought to succeed Tony Blair.

But he has insisted that Mr Brown was unaware of his actions.

In extracts of a memoir published in the Daily Mail, Mr McBride - who quit in 2009 after he was caught planning to smear Conservatives - said he was being loyal to Mr Brown, who was unaware of his actions.

His book, Power Trip, recounts infighting and media manipulation within the Labour Party in the run-up to former Prime Minister Tony Blair stepping down in 2007 and Gordon Brown replacing him.

The excerpts, published just days before Labour's annual conference which starts in Brighton on Sunday, include claims that Mr McBride:

• held a "black book" of stories about former Home Secretary Lord Reid, who resigned from the cabinet to avoid damaging newspaper allegations

• "orchestrated a briefing war" between Charles Clarke and one of Mr Blair's advisers, leading to the ex-home secretary's sacking

• leaked a damaging story to the News of the World about then Health Minister Ivan Lewis involving a female civil servant in his private office

• accused shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander of being "cold-blooded" when he insisted sister and fellow Labour politician Wendy Alexander would have to resign over a donation

• was asked to intervene in the 2010 Labour leadership contest - in which Mr Brown privately backed Ed Miliband over Ed Balls

Dame Tessa said she was "very sad" and "very angry" at infighting within Labour between 1997 and 2010 and suggested it had overshadowed Labour's achievements in many people's eyes.

'In the past'

She suggested many of the problems stemmed from Mr Brown wanting to replace Mr Blair in No 10.

"I think at the centre was the battle for supremacy of Gordon Brown in relation to Tony Blair.

"Tony Blair was the prime minister and at some level Gordon Brown could never, ever come to terms with the fact that he was not, at that time prime minister."

She added: "I would rather remember Gordon Brown's achievements in government and the work he did as chancellor... rather than being an agent of this malign and awful briefing," she told the BBC.

But she insisted Mr Miliband had made clear that such behaviour "was in the past and we are not going back to that" - adding that this had increased "confidence and solidarity" among colleagues.

"One of the most important things Ed Miliband has done is to outlaw this kind of briefing."

Dame Tessa said the timing of the book's serialisation was "awful" and suggested it was appearing shortly before the party's conference was for financial reasons.

"Damian McBride would be nobody but for the position he got in the Labour Party. Nobody is bigger than the Labour party and if you are part of the Labour family then you owe great loyalty to that in pursuit of Labour's service to the country."

'Best press'

In the memoir, Mr McBride said he was motivated by a desire to protect Mr Brown.

"I offered him the best press he could hope for, unrivalled intelligence about what was going on in the media and access to parts of the press that no other Labour politician could reach," he says.

"And my attack operations against his Labour rivals and Tory enemies were usually both effective and feared, with me willingly taking all the potential risk and blame."

He added: "Drug use; spousal abuse; secret alcoholism; extra-marital affairs.

"I estimate I did nothing with 95% of the stories I was told. But, yes, some of them ended up on the front pages of Sunday newspapers."

Mr McBride resigned as political press officer to Mr Brown after messages he sent from a No 10 website address - containing unfounded claims about Tory MPs - were published by a Westminster blogger.

At the time he apologised for the "inappropriate and juvenile" content of the emails but said had been "sickened" they had been made public.

According to political blogger Iain Dale, proceeds from sales of the book will be split between Damian McBride's current employers, Cafod - the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development - and the appeal by his former employers, Finchley Catholic High School, to build a new sixth form centre.