Speechwriter? Brown needs a magician: What the Blairite who No10 tried to woo said about the PM

After The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Mr Brown's new guru, Stephen Carter, had tried to recruit Phil Collins as a speechwriter, Mr Collins is reported to have responded by saying: "Brown doesn't need a speechwriter. He needs a magician."

His comments have been seized on by the "old guard" of advisers who surround the Prime Minister as evidence of Mr Carter's political naivety in trying to cross the tribal lines still separating Blairites and Brownites.

The wars within Downing Street first spilled into the open three weeks ago when this newspaper revealed that Mr Carter, a highly-paid public relations executive brought in to improve efficiency at No10, had tried to get rid of Ian Austin, Mr Brown's long-serving Commons "minder".

Mr Carter's allies in the PR world believe the power struggle was deliberately leaked by Mr Austin's well-placed network of supporters to force him to abandon the plan.

He has since been compelled to reassure Mr Austin that his job is safe.

The hardcore Brownites have responded by accusing people close to Mr Carter of giving detailed accounts of the ructions inside Downing Street to the trade magazine PR Week.

They say that includes a "power map" of the staffing arrangements at No10 which identified Mr Carter as the second most powerful man at Downing Street.

He was brought in to overhaul the No10 operation after the fiasco of the aborted autumn election and Labour's slump in the opinion polls.

The latest edition of PR Week contains another apparently well-sourced article suggesting that in addition to Mr Collins – who worked for Mr Blair during his last four years in office and hopes to become an MP – two more Blairite speechwriters, Peter Hyman and David Bradshaw, have been approached to pep up his performance on the podium as a key part of the Brown makeover.

The article included references to Mr Carter's "concern" about Mr Brown's "cluttered" way of delivering the Government's messages, the lack of "personality" in his speeches and the "stilted language that he tends to use".

The priority is said to be "a few good jokes".

The Prime Minister's speech-giving has been compared unfavourably with that of his predecessor – with critics complaining that he inflicts the same leaden anecdotes on audiences time and again.

Spencer Livermore, a long-serving Brown aide who helped with many of his speeches, left Downing Street two weeks ago after The Mail on Sunday revealed that Mr Carter had identified him as one of the first victims of his purge of the "old guard".