The damning proof that Campbell calls the shots

Peter Hitchens

Last updated at 00:00 27 July 2003

LONG before Rory Bremner popularised the idea, I was pointing out that Alastair Campbell is the real Premier.

This is not a joke. Those who doubt it should study this firsthand description of Campbell's relationship with Anthony Blair: 'Mr Campbell exercises an extraordinary psychological dominance over the Prime Minister.

It seems he can get away with anything. He has called him "a prat" in front of one witness, has told him to "get a f****** move on" when he believes a meeting has gone on too long, and instructed him to drop what he is doing and concentrate on something else "because it can't f****** wait".

Watching him once on a mobile phone to Mr Blair, striding up and down and wagging his finger, I felt I was hallucinating: surely here was the Prime Minister issuing orders to an official rather than the other way round?

'He has allowed television cameras into his office to record a plainly startled Mr Blair stammering out his praises. He has even at the time of the Cheriegate affair before Christmas briefed against the Prime Minister's own wife. Not since the days of the War of the Roses has there been such an overmighty subject at court.' The author of this devastating account is Robert Harris, a keen supporter of New Labour, a member of its inner circle, and a respected and truthful man. It is as bad as this. Please believe me.