New rules to prevent the publication of politically damaging memoirs by former politicians and civil servants will not be in force until after Alastair Campbell’s diaries are released, The Times has learnt.

The Government was due to announce restrictions on the publication of memoirs, diaries and biographies that “may cause damage to the confidential relationships between ministers” last September.

The move was in response to the controversial memoir by Sir Christopher Meyer, which called ministers who visited the US “political pygmies” and quoted John Prescott talking about war in the “Balklands” and “Kovosa”.

But the proposals have failed to materialise, despite a promise from Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, in February that they would be released “within a week or two”.

The delay has outraged opposition politicians, who suspect that Tony Blair is personally delaying their introduction to allow Mr Campbell’s diaries maximum room for manoeuvre.

The book is expected to fetch £1 million in serialisation rights and is being published by Random House, which is run by Gail Rebuck, the wife of Mr Blair’s polling guru, Philip Gould. The first extracts are expected at the end of July. For the first volume, the former director of communications and strategy has covered some of the most controversial periods of the Blair Government.

Chris Grayling, the Conservative frontbencher, said last night: “The Government now appears to have a completely cavalier attitude to the rules of Whitehall when it comes to looking after people who have been close to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. This is quite obviously a blatant attempt to delay things so that Alastair Campbell can get on with publishing his diaries without anyone intervening to stop him.”

The Cabinet Office denied last night that the delay was connected to the Campbell diaries.

The spokesman also confirmed that the first part of Mr Campbell’s manuscript, drawn from his two- million-word diaries collated over ten years, was submitted to the Cabinet Office for vetting several weeks ago. He refused to be drawn on its progress.

At the moment the final decision to publish memoirs rests with the author. The Government can attempt to obtain an injunction, but without clear rules on what it is acceptable to publish, courts are reluctant to accept that there is a public interest in restraining publication.

The new guidelines would restrict authors from publishing anything that may “cause damage to international relations, may cause damage to national security and may cause damage to the confidential relationships between ministers, and between ministers and civil servants, or which would inhibit the free and frank exchange of view and advice within government”.

A Cabinet Office spokesman: “This is a complex area and we believe it is important to get it right. On that basis, we will respond in due course.”

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