Labour `glove puppets' put Tories in a spin
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Your support makes all the difference.LABOUR MPS were dismissed by the Tories as "Alastair Campbell's glove puppets" last night, after a Commons committee was split by a dispute over government spin-doctors.
Opposition members on the Public Administration Committee produced a minority report after critical references to the Prime Minister's press secretary were erased from the official version.
One excised passage compared his style with that of Margaret Thatcher's press secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham.
The breakaway report called for Labour to pay its own political spin- doctors, for tighter procedures on semi-official leaks and for tapes of lobby briefings to be kept for a year.
But the official document said the committee had seen no evidence that Mr Campbell was unfair in his treatment of the press.
It called for a new code of conduct on contacts between ministers, special advisers and the press.
David Ruffley, the Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds and a former special adviser to Kenneth Clarke, suggested the Labour MPs who toned down references to Mr Campbell had been ordered to do so.
"The behaviour of the Labour members is a disgrace," he said. "They have been nobbled by their party whips. They are nothing more than Alastair Campbell's glove puppets."
Mr Campbell had probably ordered the publication of the report during the summer holidays, he added.
"This stitch-up and this cover-up will be seen through and we will be asking for more evidence."
The Conservatives also claimed that the proposed code of conduct would give Mr Campbell more power because it would order ministers and advisers to work closely with him.
Fraser Kemp, a Labour member of the committee who worked as a party press officer before becoming MP for Houghton and Washington East last year, denied that whips had asked anyone to water down the report.
"I find it a bit rich to hear talk about disgraceful subversion of Parliament and the leaking of reports, given what we have read in the press this week. There's a touch of hypocrisy about that," he said, referring to publicity about the committee's disagreement.
The committee's disagreement was the first since Labour came to power to end in a minority report being published.
Toned down report, page 8
Leading article,
Review, page 3
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