‘Master of spin’ resigns and takes heat off Blair
He resigned yesterday as Mr Blair's director of communications and strategy. Mr Campbell, a "master of spin" insisted his departure had nothing to do with the Hutton Inquiry or weapons expert Dr David Kelly's apparent suicide.
He said he wanted to "get a life back for me and my family" after working for Mr Blair since 1994.
Mr Campbell's partner and mother of their three children Fiona Millar, who works for Mr Blair's wife Cherie, will leave No 10 at the same time. However, his resignation was viewed widely as a move to deflect pressure from Mr Blair, whose standing in popularity polls has plummeted since the Iraq war, and the suicide of Dr Kelly.
Mr Campbell claimed in a statement yesterday that he had agreed with Mr Blair on April 7 this year that he would leave this summer. Yet, when the BBC reported after Dr Kelly's death that Mr Campbell would be stepping down later this year, he described it as "wishful thinking".
His departure will ease pressure on Mr Blair whose administration is currently enduring, through the Hutton Inquiry, its most intense public examination since coming to power.
Mr Campbell's decision to announce his resignation now will be seen as an attempt to pre-empt any critical findings by Lord Hutton. He will be replaced by former Labour communications chief David Hill.
Mr Campbell's departure brings to a close a chapter in politics
dominated by claims he had brought the art of "spin" to the centre of British government like never before. Speculation is bound to centre on whether Mr Hill will enjoy the same right as a political appointee to give executive orders to civil servants, a privilege conferred on Mr Campbell and Mr Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell.
Mr Campbell said: "There are huge upsides in a position like this the people, the events and places that you encounter and experience; the feeling that you are able to make a difference; the knowledge that you are witnessing history in the making. But there are downsides too and these are mostly borne by your family."
Mr Campbell said he wanted to write about politics and sport, broadcast and give speeches.
But he made clear he did not want to become an MP and said any books he might write including his now famous diaries were "some time off".
