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AFP - Only the resignation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair can end the government's much maligned culture of spin, opposition leader Iain Duncan Smith says.
Analysts believe the resignation on Friday of Blair's most powerful aide, his director of communications and strategy Alastair Campbell, is a chance to finally bury the spin culture - a view clearly not shared by Duncan Smith.
"But now he's going, let's not be deceived that his departure ... will mean an end to Labour's culture of spin and deceit," the Conservative Party leader wrote in The Independent on Sunday.
"As Campbell goes - on this I'm absolutely clear - it's not the resignation of the servant that matters but the departure of his master," he said.
"The real Downing Street director of communications must go: Tony Blair himself."
Campbell, a 46-year-old former tabloid journalist, was loathed by many members of parliament and political writers as an unelected, unaccountable "spin doctor", intensely preoccupied with managing the image of Blair and his centre-left Labour administration.
Campbell was one of the original members of Blair's inner circle who helped steer the Labour Party to two landslide election victories.
The Independent on Sunday said a new 'department of truth' headed by a top-ranking civil servant would be set up following Campbell's departure.
Blair's office has already announced that former Labour Party spokesman David Hill will succeed Campbell.
The Mail on Sunday, meanwhile, said Blair was to order a clear-out of his closest aides, including chief of staff Jonathan Powell and official spokesman Tom Kelly.
Blair has reportedly told colleagues he wants a new set of senior advisers in order to make a clean break with the damage caused by the scandal over the presumed suicide of weapons expert David Kelly.
The Sunday Mirror said Blair will move swiftly to appoint Campbell as a lord, allowing him a return to politics as a peer sitting in parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords.
©AAP 2003
Analysts believe the resignation on Friday of Blair's most powerful aide, his director of communications and strategy Alastair Campbell, is a chance to finally bury the spin culture - a view clearly not shared by Duncan Smith.
"But now he's going, let's not be deceived that his departure ... will mean an end to Labour's culture of spin and deceit," the Conservative Party leader wrote in The Independent on Sunday.
"As Campbell goes - on this I'm absolutely clear - it's not the resignation of the servant that matters but the departure of his master," he said.
"The real Downing Street director of communications must go: Tony Blair himself."
Campbell, a 46-year-old former tabloid journalist, was loathed by many members of parliament and political writers as an unelected, unaccountable "spin doctor", intensely preoccupied with managing the image of Blair and his centre-left Labour administration.
Campbell was one of the original members of Blair's inner circle who helped steer the Labour Party to two landslide election victories.
The Independent on Sunday said a new 'department of truth' headed by a top-ranking civil servant would be set up following Campbell's departure.
Blair's office has already announced that former Labour Party spokesman David Hill will succeed Campbell.
The Mail on Sunday, meanwhile, said Blair was to order a clear-out of his closest aides, including chief of staff Jonathan Powell and official spokesman Tom Kelly.
Blair has reportedly told colleagues he wants a new set of senior advisers in order to make a clean break with the damage caused by the scandal over the presumed suicide of weapons expert David Kelly.
The Sunday Mirror said Blair will move swiftly to appoint Campbell as a lord, allowing him a return to politics as a peer sitting in parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords.
©AAP 2003