Blair's aide Alastair Campbell quits amid Iraq row

8.45am

LONDON - Tony Blair's top aide and pugnacious media handler Alastair Campbell announced his resignation on Friday as the British prime minister battled the worst crisis of his six-year rule, triggered by policy on Iraq.

Campbell, 46, had been expected to quit later this year but the timing of his announcement -- while both he and Blair are enmeshed in a high-stakes inquiry involving whether Britain hyped the case for war -- caught political observers unawares.

Few had expected Campbell to quit while he and Blair face their toughest test yet, with big questions hanging over their role in nudging the nation to join Washington in a war few Britons backed.

Campbell's departure robs Blair of his closest confidant and the man widely credited with masterminding the slick media strategy that helped Blair's Labour Party regain power after 18 years in the wilderness.

"This idea that the prime minister couldn't cope without me, or without anyone else, is an absolute nonsense. The prime minister is somebody of immense ability," Campbell said in a statement.

Yet the departure is a blow to Blair as he struggles to regain voter trust amid plunging popularity ratings and perceptions style trumps substance.

Just on Thursday, Blair went before the inquiry -- a judicial probe into the suicide of an arms expert -- to answer charges in a BBC report that the government had hyped intelligence on the threat posed by Iraq.

CASUALTY OF IRAQ POLICY?

The inquiry stemmed from a dispute between Campbell and the BBC, and Blair supporters hope Campbell's departure might take the heat off the premier.

But campaigners against the war said Campbell was the first major political casualty of what they termed an illegal and unnecessary conflict.

"The end of his career as Downing Street's spinner in chief should not, however, mask the culpability of Tony Blair, who sold the war to the British people on the basis of lies," the Stop the War group said in a statement.

Campbell, who helped orchestrate two Blair election landslides, said he wanted to hand over "in the next few weeks".

Blair's office named his successor as David Hill, a public relations expert and former Labour Party press officer who will be welcomed as a straight talker after the "king of spin".

Campbell played a key role in drafting a government dossier on Iraq's weaponry which has been subject to scrutiny at the inquiry into last month's suicide of weapons expert David Kelly.

The former journalist sat in on cabinet meetings and talks with heads of states, wrote many of Blair's speeches and crafted the government "line" on all issues.

Blair said Campbell was "an immensely able, fearless, loyal servant" and that "in the extraordinarily difficult...world of the modern media, he operated with tremendous skill and dedication".

Bernard Ingham, who held Campbell's high-pressured job under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said it was high time Campbell bowed out.

"He presided over an appalling period in government communication," Ingham told Reuters. "Campbell was obsessed with presentation -- but the real culprit is Mr Blair."

Former Labour minister Gerald Kaufman said there was no smear from the so-called Hutton inquiry on Campbell, even though he was central to media allegations of "sexing up" intelligence.

Many within Labour will not mourn his departure, even if most were careful to craft the kindest of political obituaries.

"Alastair made a tremendous contribution, we wish him well," said John Prescott, Blair's number two by title even though Campbell was routinely dubbed the "real" deputy prime minister.

"It's a big void to fill -- but the Labour Party goes on."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq