Damian McBride sorry for devastating blunder

Damian McBride, Gordon Brown's former advisor who quit after smearing senior Tories in a series of emails, has admitted he let his boss down "appallingly".

McBride was forced to resign in April after emails he sent to the former Labour aide Derek Draper for a planned gossip website Red Rag, designed specifically to attack Conservatives, were leaked by the political blogger Guido Fawkes.
 
In his first interview about the affair, McBride said: "I'm sorry for the damage I did to Gordon and the reputation of No 10. And I'm sorry for the offence I caused to various people by writing those emails about them."

He also admitted that Downing Street "should have stuck the boot into me harder", telling the Guardian that he "was brought down by the newspapers, and obviously my own stupidity".
 
The hard-drinking Downing Street spin-doctor, nicknamed 'McPoison' by journalists, also revealed he suffered depression over the scurrilous emails. Brown was "so angry and so let down" by the slurs, McBride said, that "he could barely even speak to me". But the former spokesman's low mood and sleepless nights only began when the press started calling for his boss to apologise. "It hit me very hard... you feel genuinely devastated because of the impact you've had."
 
Brown, it seems, was like a father figure to the 35-year-old. "I lost my dad three years ago. He was from a religious Scottish upbringing, very stern, and he would have hated reading those emails. I remember thinking, 'Thank God my dad didn't have to see this', but the way Gordon reacted to me that day, it was as bad as telling my dad."
 
Despite his remorse, McBride, who begins his new job as a business liaison officer for his former school Finchley Catholic High in north London next week, remains defiant about certain aspects of the scandal. "I can't say sorry for the emails being published because that had nothing to do with me and I never wanted it to happen. As far as I'm concerned, those emails went in the bin shortly after they were written... and that's where they should have stayed."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:Janet Daly, the Daily Telegraph: "Why do I find this exculpation of the Prime Minister less than convincing? Could it be because the McBride approach to political infighting must have been well-known (and well-loved) by the Brown camp long before his characteristic malice was exposed for all the world to see? Or is it just that this sudden spate of interviews to friendly media outlets (the BBC and the Guardian) in which Mr McBride tells his story in identical terms, looks so much like the orchestrated campaign of an experienced political spinner?"
 
Iain Dale's Diary: "In the interview McBride reveals he kept a diary and hints he will publish it. That can be the only reason for this sudden bout of publicity. It's an opportunity to hold out the begging bowl to the Mail on Sunday. Kerching!"
 
Oona King, on Twitter: "This morning Damian says Gordon was too angry to speak... So were a lot of us when we got briefed against. It makes me wonder... can you be king without hiring assassins? I can't think of a leader without henchmen. Whether it's Gordon, Tony, Barack or Henry VIII." ·