ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, the prime minister’s communications chief, yesterday faced Labour demands for his position to be abolished and his powers to be curbed.

Labour MPs including former ministers turned on Campbell for his aggressive attempts to force the BBC to apologise over the allegation that Downing Street “sexed up” a dossier on Iraq’s banned weapons to help justify war.

As the BBC refused to back down and accused Campbell of “intimidating” it, the corporation warned that it was prepared to sue a government minister over suggestions that its reporter at the centre of the row had “misled” a Commons committee hearing on the issue.

MPs warned that Campbell had abused his position. Dr Ian Gibson, chairman of the Commons science and technology select committee and MP for Norwich North, said: “What needs to be sorted out is the undemocratic way in which they (Downing Street advisers) operate. I have never seen his job description and I do not know what he does, but it should be abolished.”

Clive Soley, a former chairman of the parliamentary Labour party, said the dispute was “no good for the government, the BBC, politics or journalism” but he had been expecting it. “If the spotlight continues to fall on Campbell his position will become untenable.”

Bob Marshall-Andrews QC, Labour MP for Medway, said: “Alastair Campbell shouldn’t exist. I don’t mean that personally but it is clear his position gives him immense power. He is an appointed, unelected official who has power to direct civil servants. It is not the way a first world government should behave.”

Peter Kilfoyle, a former government minister, said Campbell had broken his own cardinal rule that a spin doctor should not become the story. “The attacks on the BBC are unwarranted,” he said.

Dr Tony Wright, the chairman of the Commons public administration committee, wants Campbell stripped of the right to give orders to civil servants and plans to introduce a bill in parliament to do so.

Yesterday, however, Campbell made it clear he had no intention of stepping down. He told friends: “I am going to go on for four centuries.”

Members of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, which has been investigating the affair, are understood to have concluded that Campbell did not interfere to include in the dossier the warning that Saddam Hussein could ready weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. The committee’s report is expected to be published next week.

Campbell is considering pursuing the BBC either through the corporation’s official complaints procedure or the Broadcasting Standards Commission.

His anger was transparent on Friday when he turned up at the Channel 4 studios unannounced to go on the 7pm news and further berate the corporation. It came only hours after the BBC issued a point-by-point rebuttal of his criticisms.

Greg Dyke, the BBC’s director-general and previously a Labour donor, was involved in drafting the BBC’s response.

Ben Bradshaw, the former BBC journalist who is now an environment minister, alleged on yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the corporation had failed to check the original story with the government before broadcasting it.

John Humphrys, the programme’s presenter, denied this but Bradshaw is demanding an apology after claiming checks bear out his version.

Last night Andrew Gilligan, the reporter behind the original story on the dossier, threatened legal action over suggestions that he had misled the foreign affairs committee.

He was responding to a letter from Phil Woolas, the deputy leader of the Commons, made public on Thursday. Gilligan said that if he did not receive an apology within 24 hours he would take legal action with the full backing of the BBC.

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