Smash hit

Criticism has been chiefly directed at those sitting around Labour’s war desk, otherwise known as the “top table”: Alan Milburn, the election co-ordinator; Alastair Campbell, the former Downing Street communications chief; Lord (Philip) Gould, the Prime Minister’s personal pollster; and Matt Carter, the party’s general secretary. They are assisted by two “progress chasers”: Jo Gibbons, Mr Milburn’s adviser, and Sally Dobson, a longstanding Labour official.

There is a bit of boyish banter between them, usually led by the track-suit clad Mr Campbell. Mr Milburn likes to ridicule Lord Gould’s badly-ironed shirts, while others poke fun at the pollster’s vitamin pill-popping habit. The inability of either Mr Campbell or Mr Milburn to work their computers is also a subject for mirth. At lunchtime an argument regularly breaks out about who is going to buy sandwiches, and that is about exciting as it gets.

Nearby is the “attack unit”, headed by Fraser Kemp, a government whip and Labour’s campaign spokesman; and Patrick Laughlin, a clever apparatchik who has performed a number of roles for his party. Incidentally, there is no such thing as a dirty tricks operation codenamed “Black Watch” — a notion they believe was invented by a paranoic right-wing press.

Other important components include the press team, run by Matthew Doyle, and a field operations unit overseen by Karen Hicks, a former adviser to both Bill Clinton and John Kerry’s Democratic presidential campaigns.

There are purple-upholstered chairs and bright red in-trays, an occasional plant pot, water cooler and vending machine, but nothing much else to write home (let alone tell Times readers) about.

Instead, it has been what — or rather, who — is missing which has been most notable. Labour’s last two election campaigns were masterminded by Peter Mandelson and Gordon Brown, a duo whose loathing for each other did not prevent them achieving successive landslide victories in 1997 and 2001.

Mr Mandelson has since departed for a new job as European Commissioner and his feline skills were undoubtedly missed during the faltering start of this campaign. Mr Brown has so far been semi-detached, in spite of repeated entreaties from Mr Blair for him to take on a similar strategic role to that he performed in previous elections.

The Chancellor remains angry that Mr Blair has reneged on what he believes were promises to step down as Prime Minister last year. He was further upset by the appointment of Mr Milburn, a man for whom he has scant respect, as election co-ordinator, and an apparent instruction to concentrate on getting the vote out in marginal constituencies. Mr Brown insists he has done exactly what was asked of him, even though his regional tours have been organised by his own office without reference to Labour ’s key seats unit.

But a grudging peace deal has now been brokered, not least because it is not in Mr Brown’s interests to be blamed for election losses. Indeed, if he is to succeed Mr Blair in the next Parliament, he will want to govern with as big a Commons majority as possible.

Although there will not be a structural change in the campaign’s leadership, the Chancellor will take on a much more visible role and has been assured Labour will fight on his chosen battleground of the economy and public services.

The irony is that Mr Milburn and Mr Campbell had already been trying to run an election campaign based on precisely those themes while having to field the likes of Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, at press conferences about Tory spending cuts, because Mr Brown had made himself unavailable.

Indeed, the hyperbole about winning a quintessentially Blairite third term mandate with an “unremittingly new Labour” manifesto has been toned down. Draft policies on extending tenants’ right-to-buy or radically changing benefit rules and pensions have, in the words of one Downing Street figure, “been turned to mush” by entrenched opposition from Whitehall departments.

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