Was Campbell behind his old master's attack on 'feral' media?

Downing Street insisted that the speech, delivered at the London headquarters of the Reuters news agency last week, was all Mr Blair's own words.

But a Mail on Sunday investigation suggests that the hidden hand of Campbell, his former speech writer, was at work.

Former Daily Mirror journalist Campbell was forced to leave No10 four years ago after the suicide of Ministry of Defence weapons expert Dr David Kelly. His diaries, which are published next month, are expected to echo Mr Blair's complaints against the media.

The new disclosures reinforce claims that as well as coining many of Mr Blair's best-known soundbites - such as his tribute to Diana, 'the People's Princess' - Campbell was, and remains, a major influence on his policies.

The Prime Minister's speech contains amazing similarities to remarks by Campbell on the same subject just eight months ago.

Complaining about the alleged lack of balance in the media, Mr Blair said: "Everything is a triumph or a disaster. A problem is "a crisis". A setback is a policy "in tatters"."

Spot the difference from Campbell's observation in a speech to the Kingsley Napley law firm last October, when he argued: "Everything is described as a crisis when in fact they are dealing with a problem, a setback, not a crisis."

Mr Blair said the Independent newspaper was a 'viewspaper' not a newspaper, stating: "Broadsheets face the same pressures as tabloids; broadcasters increasingly the same pressures as broadsheets. The audience needs to be arrested, held and their emotions engaged."

In his October speech, Campbell declared: "Traditional barriers between tabloids, broadsheets and broadcasters have collapsed; they are all chasing populist stories to attract attention and retain viewers, listeners and readers." Mr Blair boasted: "I introduced lobby briefings on the record, monthly Press conferences and became the first Prime Minister to go to the Select Committee's chairman's session. None of it to any avail."

Campbell got there before him last October: "I put all our briefings on the record. The Prime Minister agreed to a monthly live Press conference and was the first-ever PM to appear before Select Committees. But even all this tended to be dismissed as spin."

They even use the same language: Mr Blair talked about the 'whacking' he received from the media. Campbell speaks of his love of 'whacking' the Tories.

Mr Blair said his speech was about 'the challenge of the changing nature of communication on politics'.

Campbell wrote: "There is a book to be written about the changing nature of political communication."

Campbell is no stranger to the cutting and pasting technique now banned by exam boards - he had to apologise for producing a 'dodgy dossier' of Saddam's weapons which was lifted from the internet.