Alastair Campbell returning to help Labour fight 2015 election, leaked memo reveals
The Labour party is calling upon its former spin doctor Alastair Campbell to help it fight the next general election, a leaked memo has revealed.
The top-secret document, obtained by the Observer, outlines how Campbell and other prominent media figures from the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown eras of Labour government will be brought back into the fold to advise on campaign tactics.
Headed 'Proposed General Election 2015 Meeting Stucture', the memo lists a 'monthly AC catch up' between Campbell, Labour leader Ed Miliband and the party's head of campaign strategy, Douglas Alexander, at Miliband's North London home.
A spokesperson for Miliband confirmed to the Observer that Campbell will return. However they played down the paper's claims that a number of other key figures from the New Labour era will be recalled to plot campaign strategy.
The memo, now described by Labour as an 'early note', had also detailed a 'Sunday group' involving a number of key figures from the party's past such as Tony Blair's former press officer Matthew Doyle, and aides to Peter Mandelson, Ben Wegg-Prosser and Patrick Loughran.
It is Campbell's mooted return, however, that has grabbed today's headlines. As Tony Blair's director of communications and strategy, Campbell was one of the most influential figures in the Labour government before quitting in 2003.