Gordon Brown bowed to pressure and expressed his “great regret” last night over a smear campaign planned by his former head of strategy and planning in No 10.
The personal letters from the Prime Minister to David Cameron and other senior Conservatives slurred by Damian McBride stopped short of a full apology.
In trying to contain the fallout from the allegations contained in Mr McBride’s e-mails, the Prime Minister insisted that no other adviser or minister had been involved.
Mr Brown also wrote to Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, strengthening the rules for political aides.
The Tories are pressing for an official investigation into the creation of a website, Red Rag, intended to serve as a Labour “attack blog”.
Mr McBride resigned at the weekend after it was revealed that he had sent Derek Draper, the former spin doctor, items for publication on the website, including a series of unfounded allegations against senior Conservatives and their spouses.
Yesterday morning Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, toured broadcasting studios saying that Mr McBride’s unfounded allegations were “disgusting” and had shamed Labour. He said that it was unfair to expect the Prime Minister to apologise for something about which he had no knowledge, but that Mr Brown would want to learn lessons “about his private office and about how things are done in Downing Street” after the incident.
By the afternoon Mr Brown had released a carefully worded letter to Sir Gus. He said that the e-mails were “a matter of great regret” and that “all of us in public life have a responsibility to ensure that those we employ and who are involved in our parties observe the highest standards”.
He wrote: “Mr McBride has apologised and done so unreservedly. But it is also important to make sure such behaviour does not happen again. Any activity such as this that affects the reputation of our politics is a matter of great regret to me and I am ready to take whatever action is necessary to improve our political system.”
A revised code of conduct for special advisers should in future include “a more explicit assurance . . . that not only are the highest standards expected of political advisers but that the preparation or dissemination of inappropriate material or personal attacks have no part to play in the job of being a special adviser.”
He added: “I have also written personally to all those who were subject to these unsubstantiated claims.”
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6088015.ece
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