Gordon Brown gets ‘royal’ spin doctor

Gordon Brown entered Downing Street pledging to end the culture of spin, but apparently forgot to tell his spin doctor Damian McBride who went on to plot an email smear campaign against the Tories. The PM swiftly fired McBride, but his image as 'Mr Clean' was badly dented, to say the least. Now he has appointed a new chief spin doctor with the Royal touch. What else?

Brown has given the job to Simon Lewis, the man who, on a salary of £230,000 a year, re-cast the Queen's image after her much-criticised reaction to Princess Diana's death in 1997.

The PR guru, a friend of Lord Mandelson who has since worked for Vodafone, has signed up to replace Brown's current spokesman, civil servant Michael Ellam, in July. He will be the main point of contact between political journalists and the PM when parliament returns in the autumn.

Unlike Ellam, who has fiercely protected his status as a civil servant rather than party hack, Lewis is likely to be the new Alastair Campbell, enjoying a powerful role running overall strategic communications in Downing Street.

He will host the lobby briefings with Westminster journalists. Unfettered by concerns over a future civil service career path, Lewis could turn those twice-daily press briefings into more exciting events.

Lewis is the brother of Will Lewis, editor of the Daily Telegraph, the cause of much of the damage wreaked on Downing Street in recent weeks. Pity Brown didn't think of Simon earlier. ·