A LEGEND IN HIS OWN PRIME TIME

Peter Oborne on why, all of a

sudden, Alastair Campbell has turned into Mr Nice Guy

AS THE biographer of Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's press secretary, I believe it is my duty to take an interest in his moral, intellectual and, to some extent, spir- itual welfare. All three of these areas have given grave cause for concern from time to time. This week, however, it is Campbell's judgment that is open to question.

Three years ago, when Gordon Brown's press secretary, Charlie Whelan, let cam- eras into the Treasury, Campbell refused to co-operate and let it be known that he felt Whelan had made a catastrophic mis- take. Circumstances vindicated this judg- ment. That Treasury documentary did Whelan no favours. It was part of a pro- cess that led to his resignation in January 1999. 'The job of press secretary,' Whelan mused later, 'becomes extremely difficult if the press secretary and not the department he serves becomes the story. .

Now Campbell has decided to allow a fly- on-the-wall documentary team into Down- ing Street. For the last few weeks cameras have followed him into lobby briefings, on prime-ministerial trips, and on one occasion into a party thrown by Tony Blair for politi- cal editors and their partners. Many of those present detected something fishy about this event, which was arranged at short notice. As political editors found a quiet corner where they could chat undisturbed by the cameras and 'boom' microphones, they complained that they were extras at an event put on for Campbell's benefit.

Another extra at this Campbell-spon- sored production was the Prime Minister himself. Blair is clearly a willing accomplice. This is unprecedented. Never before has a Downing Street press secretary allowed himself, rather than the prime minister, to become the focus of attention. Never before has a prime minister consented to this behaviour. Indeed, it has traditionally been the job of a press secretary to serve, in as unobtrusive a way as possible, the prime minister and the government of the day.

This was the approach taken by Jonathan Haslam, Sir Christopher Meyer and Gus O'Donnell, John Major's three press secretaries. It was also the philoso- phy of Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatch- er's legendary press secretary, though by the end of 11 years in office he was reluc- tantly established as a character in his own right. Joe Haines, press secretary for Harold Wilson, made it a rule that mem- bers of his team should stay in the back- ground. Indeed, whenever a member of the Downing Street press office strayed within range of a camera, Haines not merely handed out a severe admonishment but fined the culprit a bottle of wine, to be contributed to the annual office party.

Campbell has taken the opposite approach. He wants his public image to underline the way he carries more clout than any member of the Cabinet except for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Whether this is wise is another matter: until now press secretaries have been all the more effective for doing the job quietly. Further- more, it does Blair's government no good at all to advertise that it has handed so much power to unelected figures.

Campbell's friends respond that this is exactly why they have agreed to allow Michael Cockerell, the television producer whose documentary about Tony Blair caused purring in Downing Street, to make his programme on Campbell. 'We want to dispel the notion,' says an ally, 'that Alas- tair is a sinister figure who bullies and manipulates the press when in fact he is nothing of the sort.'

Perhaps this is why the hard-bitten thug who took an undoubted pleasure in abus- ing and misleading correspondents has vanished, at least temporarily. The first time Alastair Campbell met the lobby in his capacity of press secretary, on 2 May 1997, he asked journalists to explain 'why I should waste my time with a load of fucking wankers like you when you're not going to write anything I tell you anyway'. This remark set the tone of much that was to follow. But in recent weeks Camp- bell has been polite and well-spoken.

The trouble about chemical experiments in laboratory conditions is that they can never mirror what really happens in the outside world. So it is with the Cockerell documentary. The presence of cameras has changed the behaviour not merely of Campbell but of journalists, with corre- spondents like Robin Oakley and John Sergeant reported by colleagues to be shamelessly showboating for TV.

But the biggest change is in Campbell. Three weeks ago, on a trip to Wales, Camp- bell joined journalists in the back of their bus rather than travel in the Prime Minis- ter's car. When asked to explain this unlike- ly turn of events, Campbell had the audacity to claim that he had become detached from Tony Blair's official car. There was just one trouble with this explanation, as one reporter had the temerity to point out: 'We could never remember this happening before: the Prime Minister's car always waits for the Deputy Prime Minister.'

In the evening Campbell's behaviour was odder still. He allowed himself to be lured to dinner at St David's Hotel, with a group of journalists. When they arrived at the table the reporters — from the Times, Inde- pendent, Express and Mirror — were sur- prised to find a camera crew in attendance. As press secretary, Campbell has almost invariably made a point of refusing to take meals from lobby correspondents.

It remains to be seen whether the docu- mentary projects the image of a helpful and benign Campbell. If it does, it will be a sig- nificant triumph for those very dark arts of media manipulation which Downing Street hopes that the Cockerell programme will demonstrate do not exist.

Alastair Campbell does nothing inno- cently: so much is certain. There is a grow- ing school of thought that he is preparing an exit strategy. That programme about Charlie Whelan did not help him as Trea- sury press secretary, but certainly furthered his subsequent career as a broadcaster. Some students of Campbell claim that he is preparing a way for a career in the private sector. An alternative, and more attractive, theory maintains that Campbell is looking to follow the example of Peter Mandelson, emerge from the shadows, and enter main- stream politics. Campbell is a formidable and powerful figure, with the ability and presentational skills to stand out in the House of Commons and in due course carry weight as a Cabinet minister, the great majority of whom he already out- shines. At present those skills, whatever the Cockerell programme chooses to report, are exercised in the dark. It would be an excellent thing for democracy, for New Labour and for Campbell himself if one of the government's brightest stars were gen- uinely to come out into the open.

Peter °borne is political columnist on the Express.