LEADING figures from the liberal establishment have become entangled in a feud between The Guardian and The Observer, sister newspapers of the left.

Those affected include Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, Dame Liz Forgan, former head of BBC radio, and Trevor Phillips, boss of Britain’s new human rights superquango.

It was the Iraq invasion which triggered the spat, although it has been bubbling away since 1993 when the Guardian Media Group bought the loss-making Observer.

Skirmishes have intensified with rumours about the contents of a new book by Nick Davies, a Guardian journalist who is close to Alan Rusbridger, the editor.

It will, among many other things, examine why The Observer broke with the traditional values of the left by being so supportive of the Iraq war. The Guardian opposed invading without United Nations support.

The row mirrors a wider split among liberals triggered by the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war. Writers such as Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens, once regarded as on the left, have offended many fellow intellectuals with forthright attacks on Islamic extremism.

When Andrew Anthony, an Observer feature writer, last month brought out his book The Fall-Out, in which he questioned his own liberal views after 9/11, a devastating critique appeared in The Guardian by Decca Aitkenhead who described how disappointed she was that her pal had “sold out”, as had “other former allies” on The Observer, such as Nick Cohen, a columnist.

Earlier there had been a falling out over The Observer’s medical coverage. The Guardian ran a coruscating article by Ben Goldacre, its “Bad Science” columnist, heavily criticising a front-page article in The Observer in July which reported alleged links between the MMR vaccine and autism.

These skirmishes involve Rusbridger, who is both editor of The Guardian and editor-in-chief of The Observer, Forgan, chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund and who also heads the Scott Trust, the owner of both newspapers, and Kamal Ahmed, a senior Observer executive.

There are rumours that in Davies’s book, which will be published in February, that Ahmed was given preferential treatment by Campbell in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Ahmed, once tipped to become Fleet Street’s first editor from an ethnic minority, is now to leave The Observer, where he was political editor during the war, for the newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission. He will be director of communications for Phillips, who chairs the new body.

Davies was given leave by Rusbridger to write Flat Earth Society, which will mainly examine the extent to which the media are driven by public relations machines which feed them exaggerated stories or plain lies.

Davies is seen by some on The Observer as “Rusbridger’s agent”, who will attack the paper from within the organisation over its aggressive line on Iraq.

The Observer’s worries have not been helped by concerns over planned closer integration between the two papers when they move to new shared offices next year.

While Davies this weekend did not return calls asking him to discuss his book, The Guardian stated that Rusbridger had nothing to do with it, except for initially encouraging Davies to write it. The Guardian will also not be serialising it, contrary to rumours.

Even so, Davies will detail why The Observer “went to war” over Iraq, including a blow-by-blow account of the meetings at which the newspaper decided its combative editorials.

Roger Alton, the paper’s lively editor, was absent from one key meeting and asked his deputy to voice his hawkish views.

Colleagues of Davies say he could hint that Ahmed was asked by Campbell to advise on the February 2003 “dodgy dossier” on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, and to offer views on how it could be presented to journalists. There could also be suggestions that Ahmed got special treatment over stories from Campbell.

“The notion that I was being driven by Campbell is completely wrong and untrue,” said Ahmed this weekend. “And the notion that I had any role at all in that dossier is also not true.” Ahmed added that he simply had a good working relationship with Campbell.

As a senior executive, Ahmed was also involved in the MMR story, which failed to mention links to the controversial doctor, Andrew Wakefield. After the assault on its accuracy by The Guardian and following questioning by scientists and medical experts, Forgan asked for a report. Ahmed and Alton helped to answer her points and also drafted a 953-word “clarification”.

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