Spinmeister unspun

Alastair Campbell has managed to upstage Tony Blair this week, reports Alistair Alexander from London

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It says much about Tony Blair's appearance before the Hutton Enquiry that it was quickly overshadowed by the resignation of his director of communications, Alastair Campbell, the next day. But it says considerably more about Campbell and his extraordinary influence within Blair's New Labour government.

Lord Hutton's enquiry into the suicide of the government's Iraqi weapons expert, Dr David Kelly, has two main questions to answer; whether Dr Kelly was mistreated by the government after they found out he was the source of the 'sexed-up' dossier claims and, secondly, whether Dr Kelly's claims were accurate.

Campbell himself is at the nexus of the Dr Kelly tragedy. It was Campbell who was accused by the BBC of "transforming" the dossier, and it was Campbell who attacked the BBC with such ferocity for making the claim. Furthermore, Campbell -- as numerous e-mails exposed during the Hutton enquiry revealed -- was deeply involved in leaking Dr Kelly's identity to the media when the government found out he was the BBC's source, a tactic that led to Dr Kelly's death.

Critics of the government have long seen Campbell as the malignant force at the heart of New Labour. For a government charged with being obsessed by 'spin', Campbell was the spinmeister-in-chief.

But his influence went far beyond that. As Blair's single truly indispensable aide since becoming Labour leader nine years ago, Campbell has often been called the "real deputy prime minister". Even this can be considered an understatement.

The New Labour "project" has always regarded its media image as sacrosanct. And Campbell was the primary architect of that image -- to the extent that Tony Blair the prime minister is as much a creation of Campbell as of Blair himself.

Blair and Campbell were, in effect, altar egos; while Blair maintained a saintly distance from the political fray, Campbell rolled up his sleeves to do battle on his master's behalf. It was a good cop/bad cop routine that was -- as many of the prime minister's critics discovered -- terrifyingly effective.

Ministers quickly learned that when Campbell ordered them around he spoke with the unquestioned authority of the prime minister, a status unprecedented for an unelected adviser.

Campbell was undoubtedly a communications genius, but as the aftermath of Iraq and the death of Dr Kelly caught up with the government, he was becoming more of a liability than an asset. After months of speculation, he had, in fact, announced his future departure several weeks before, to be at a "time of (his) choosing".

The timing still surprised everyone, however; he had barely waited for Tony Blair to leave Lord Hutton's courtroom before bolting for the Downing Street exit. Unsurprisingly, Campbell's resignation is widely seen as a tacit admission of guilt and many suspect he was quietly forced out.

But while he will almost certainly be lambasted in Lord Hutton's findings, it is inconceivable that Tony Blair would willingly let Campbell go. However bad it might look to retain Campbell, Blair is simply too dependent on him.

More likely Campbell had simply had enough and left as soon as he could without upstaging -- and thereby destroying -- the government's case in the Hutton enquiry.

But cynics will wonder whether Campbell's row with the BBC was more about raising his own profile before leaving than it was about defending the government's reputation.

Compared with Campbell's departure, Blair's appearance at the Hutton Enquiry became a mere footnote to the week's events. While the circumstantial evidence against the government revealed by the enquiry is damning, Blair's closest aides have managed to hold a scrupulously planned defensive line to deflect any damage from specific allegations. As the enquiry has continued, a broadly similar line of questioning has been met with answers that are increasingly pre- fabricated.

So when Blair -- always the consummate master of his brief -- took to the witness stand, he was simply negotiating ground already well-trodden by his aides before him.

Unsurprisingly then, many of Blair's answers had a familiar ring to them. No, he protested, of course they did not "sex-up" the dossier. Yes, he admitted, he authorised Dr Kelly's name to be released to the media. Just like his senior officials, Blair was concerned that if Dr Kelly's name was not released it would look like a cover-up. And besides, it was bound to get out anyway. But it was done in accordance with official procedures, Blair claimed, testifying "We handled this by the book."

On the subject of the BBC report, which initiated the whole furore that culminated in Dr Kelly's death, Blair was unrepentant. "Had the allegation been true, it would have merited my resignation," he pointedly told the enquiry, a statement his opponents readily agree with. But not only was Blair stating the obvious to the enquiry, he was also issuing an implicit threat; if you fight against me you will be individually responsible for my downfall. Even for the hard- nosed Lord Hutton, such a consequence is not to be considered lightly.

But while most of his aides have been careful to dodge personal responsibility for events surrounding Dr Kelly's death, Blair went out of his way to accept it.

That particular aspect of the prime minister's performance played well, partly since the day before at the enquiry, his hapless Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon had done precisely the opposite. It was Hoon's Ministry of Defence (MoD) that, as Dr David Kelly's employer, had responsibility for his welfare. And it was the MoD that released his name to the media, setting off a chain of events that led to his death. Rumours, plainly stoked by Downing Street, that Hoon was to be served up to the enquiry as a sacrificial lamb had been swirling around the press for weeks.

So while most of Blair's aides sang from the same hymn sheet, Hoon was left with no hymn sheet to sing from and had to make up the words as he went along. It was an unedifying spectacle.

Bucks were not so much passed by Hoon, as hurled into next week. Not only did he claim to know nothing of the schemings in Downing Street, he apparently knew precious little of what his own MoD officials were up to. He initially denied knowing about his department releasing Dr Kelly's name to the media, only to admit it a few questions later.

So if Hutton's findings are felt to require a senior casualty -- other than Alastair Campbell, that is -- Hoon confirmed his status as the leading contender.

While Blair has so far escaped the Hutton Enquiry largely unharmed, many questions still hang over him. Why was he so keen for Dr Kelly's name to be leaked to the media? Why did he insist that Dr Kelly should be interrogated in public by MPs? And if he accepts responsibility for Dr Kelly's name being released to the media, why did he "emphatically" deny it to journalists on the day that Dr Kelly was found dead?

The enquiry will continue into a second phase which promises to be a much sterner test, wherein witnesses will face cross-examination from the lawyers of other witnesses. Whether Tony Blair will be called again remains to be seen.

But even if he is not, Blair will still feel more isolated and exposed than ever before. Without Alastair Campbell Blair will be half the prime minister he used to be. And he could well be facing twice the troubles.