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Campbell will publish memoirs as soon as Blair quits
Last updated at 08:52am on 09.03.07
Cashing in: Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's former spin chief, has agreed a huge deal with Random House to publish his secret diaries once Mr Blair resigns
The memoirs of Alastair Campbell are to be published within days of the Prime Minister leaving Downing Street, it was announced yesterday.
Tony Blair's propagandist-in-chief will earn more than £1million from the book detailing his time at No 10, including his role in the naming of weapons expert David Kelly which contributed to his suicide.
He will earn a similar fee for serialisation with Blair-supporting newspapers The Sun and The Times, for which Mr Campbell writes an occasional sports column.
Cashing in: Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's former spin chief, has agreed a huge deal with Random House to publish his secret diaries once Mr Blair resigns
Publishers Random House confirmed they had received the first extracts of the book called The Blair Years and that it would be published as soon as Mr Blair quits, probably in July.
Sources say that Mr Campbell will use the book to settle scores with his opponents in politics and the media in a volume covering Mr Blair's 13 years as Labour leader. His full two million word diaries will be published later as a series.
The book is a ticking timebomb for Gordon Brown. It will come out as he is expected to begin his premiership and could prove embarrassing, since it is expected to lay bare the Blair-Brown civil war.
Mr Campbell is widely believed to have described the Chancellor as "psychologically flawed" - a description which has dogged Mr Brown.
Alastair Campbell and partner Fiona Millar, who worked as a special adviser to Cherie Blair
He has pledged to submit his manuscript for scrutiny by the Cabinet Office but opposition MPs say they will be waved through because of his connections in Government.
In contrast, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's former ambassador to Iraq, had to put his memoirs on hold after pressure by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Britain's former envoy in Washington Sir Christopher Meyer and former No 10 spin doctor Lance Price were also subjected to criticism from ministers for publishing their diaries.
Tory frontbencher Chris Grayling said: "I'm happy to see the irony in Alastair Campbell cashing in on his time in Downing Street given how quickly the Government has sat on other people who have tried to do the same in the last couple of years.
"The person who should be most worried is Gordon Brown, since it may well have been Campbell who described him as being psychologically flawed. I suspect these diaries will blow the lid off the tensions between Brown and Blair."
Liberal Democrat Norman Baker said: "The idea that he should make a mint from a final exercise in spin sticks in the gullet. It seems the wages of spin are really rather good.
"Alastair Campbell should be subject to the same rules of control as would any other civil servant. It will be a test of the system to ensure that he is dealt with in the same way as the Government's critics."
Susan Sandon, managing director of the division publishing The Blair Years said they would be 'the political publishing event of the decade".
Mr Campbell said yesterday: "I have kept a diary at various points but, when I started working for Tony, an occasional habit became something of a daily obsession.
"The diary records what I saw, said, heard, thought, felt and did during many of the key moments of his leadership. It records good days and bad days. Things going wrong as well as things going right."
Allies of Mr Brown claimed to be "unfazed" by the diaries. One said: "There have been quite a few of these sort of books and we have never commented on them."
Reader views (15)
Spin it how you will, Alistair Campbell, your words will be re-spun to suit the next "author" to claim that unsubstantiated and uncollaborated tales are true. If you had any morality or conscience you would slink away quietly and stop behaving so moronically. Either you feel the need to tell the truth (and donate the proceeds to charities) or vindictively profiteering from an un-elected, appointed position of "trust" which you are now proving was an unwise appointment by a person(s) of doubtful judgement!
You have already shown that you are an utterly despicable manipulator of facts that you are untrustworthy. Making mischief and money will be your legacy but this will not worry you, will it? You can compare yourself to and join with, previous collaborators and propogandists who have "only done my job!" for despots and dictators through history.
- Ian, Letchworth UK, 09/03/2007 15:21
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Will this book be in fiction or non-fiction?
- Dereck, Eltham, London, 09/03/2007 15:16
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I will be happy to boycott this book. There is no point in reading spin, after all we have all lived through this shameful goverment's antics. I would not spend one penny on buying it nor even borrow it from my library, it just would be a waste of my time reading it.
Hope it stays on the shelfs!
- Peter, Herts, 09/03/2007 14:36
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Campbell was never elected, Karl. Whether you support Blair or not, everyone should be interested in finding out how our country has been run for the past 10 years from someone who knows rather than relying on the media. And unlike most politicians and civil servants, Campbell knows how to write.
- Persemillion, Essex, 09/03/2007 08:35
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The publisher had better check that the memoirs were not lifted from the internet like the dodgy dossier making a case for the non existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Campbell like his master Blair has previous form!
- David Pugh, England, 09/03/2007 04:11
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I call on all decent Englishmen, and readers of any other nationality, to BOYCOTT this book, show Random House that it has paid this little creep a million pounds for nothing and end this despicable livelihood of "dishing the dirt" for your pension.
I would not believe one word this man wrote, anyway. He was the King of Spin, I hope he will cry all the way to the bank.
- Simon Cooper, London, England, 08/03/2007 22:44
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Rats from the sinking ship...
- Max, London, 08/03/2007 21:40
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Do we want to read about 'the Blair years'? We've suffered 'em.
- Judith Chisholm, London, 08/03/2007 20:20
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I imagine it will be available for a £1 or less in next year's January sales.
- Michael, London, 08/03/2007 17:45
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The answer is simple. Don't buy the book!
- Mark, Whitstable, UK, 08/03/2007 17:11
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Who would want to read it anyway? Two petty men who conspired to say one thing and do another.
- Pete, York, 08/03/2007 17:07
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If our illustrious leader is subsequently charged and found guilty over this cash for honours affair, would these diaries be classed as making money from illegal activity and not allow money to be made by the criminal?
- Anon, London, 08/03/2007 16:49
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It is an absolute disgrace that individuals who are elected into public office are able to abuse their privileged knowledge for personal financial gain. With this governments achievements bordering on criminal it is totally insulting that a member of parliament can abuse his paid time at the public expense to diarise the calamitous failures of its leader.
- Karl, London, 08/03/2007 15:20
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Can anyone tell me why the public purse is still paying for this revolting man's salary when at the same time he has time to write and sell a book and present lucrative public 'lectures' earning him thousands in blatant breach of civil servants' guidelines?
- Givenuphope, London England, 08/03/2007 14:29
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Looking forward to seeing this under the "fiction" category in the bookshops!
- Marianne, SW France, 08/03/2007 14:18
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