Alastair Campbell’s account of the end of the New Labour era shows how things might have been different

The latest volume of diaries by Tony Blair’s spin doctor cover Gordon Brown’s time as prime minister, 2007-2010

Alastair Campbell had a ringside seat during the New Labour years (Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images)

Gordon Brown’s premiership ended only eight years ago, but it seems longer. Since the dramas recorded in these pages, not only has the opposition taken over government but the Labour Party has been transformed. Jeremy Corbyn is not mentioned once in this volume, the last of Alastair Campbell’s to cover Labour in power.

This is a portrait of a vanished world. One in which the court of New Labour dominated all. Everyone knew its time was coming to an end, and that power was ebbing towards the young princes, David Cameron and George Osborne. But in the meantime there was still a struggle between the ruling tribes of Brownites and Blairites, and endless plots to try to forestall the Conservative advance by replacing Brown with the Blairite young prince, David Miliband.

Campbell was at the heart of this drama, as Tony Blair’s former spin doctor who was now an adviser to Brown and a confidant of Miliband’s. Brown begged Campbell to work for him full time. “I can win an election,” Brown told him in May 2008. “But I know I can’t win it without you.” Campbell, worried about his mental health and his family, said he would help but only part time. A few weeks later Brown said: “I am at the end of my tether and I would give anything to get you involved.”

Later he offered Campbell a peerage and to make him minister for sport in the Lords. Three days after one of their conversations, Peter Mandelson returned to cabinet. Campbell was put out that Brown “had been working on both of us simultaneously without telling me”. He was torn: “Part of me felt I should be in there and part of it. Part of me just didn’t want to know.” He carried on working half in, half out, sceptical about Brown but loyal to Labour.

Campbell’s diaries from 1994 to 2003, when he was by Tony Blair’s side, are an unparalleled historical record. After 2003 he continued to be well connected, observant and prolific. He bumped into Cameron and Osborne repeatedly. Like Brown, they respected him as an opponent.

At the wedding of Rebekah Wade, the editor of The Sun, Campbell told Cameron that if the Tories won the election he would help them “do something” about the media – which Campbell felt were out of control. Cameron “agreed things were getting worse”, as they were joined by the proprietor. “‘What are you two cooking up?’ asked Rupert Murdoch. ‘Just talking about the future of The Independent,’ lied DC.” Most peculiar.

He is not ready but he has inhaled all the propaganda from the Guardianistas. Truth is Ed would make a good leader of the Lib Dems

David Miliband on his brother

As ever, what is striking about Campbell’s diaries is their honesty. He worries about his fragile mental health, at one point drying up on live TV when Andrew Marr asked him about the Iraq war. He recounts painful arguments with Fiona Millar, his partner, yet is plainly devoted to her and depends on her. He tells of quite personal rows with Cherie Blair, speculating that she “first turned against me when I persuaded TB to give up the MPs’ pay rise in opposition”.

Tony Blair’s explanation was different: that she resented his role in organising the “stable and orderly” handover from Blair to Brown. “He [Blair] said that while he just about accepted his time had been up, she felt what had happened was abominable, the way GB had forced him out, and she was angry. Also, she knew that I had put together the plan that led to the denouement.”

The main interest of these diaries, looking back, is in how things might have turned out differently. Most senior Labour people seem to have been engaged in a constant conversation about how Brown might be persuaded to step aside for someone better able to deny the Tories a majority – Alan Johnson or, more usually, David Miliband.

Two themes emerge from Campbell’s conversations with Miliband. One is Miliband’s growing realisation that his younger brother also had his eye on the leadership. The other is the older brother’s diffidence. Even when he realised Ed intended to stand, David seems to have assumed he would still win a post-election contest. Thus he took no risks in trying to oust Brown before the election – at which, ironically, Brown denied the Tories a majority. Then he held back from pushing for an anti-Tory alliance in the days after the election – even though some Lib Dems signalled they would be willing to do a deal if he replaced Brown as Labour leader.

Even when Brown announced he would step aside, Miliband was passive. And he continued to be dismissive of his younger brother, telling Campbell on the day after the 2010 election: “He is not ready but he has inhaled all the propaganda from the Guardianistas. Truth is Ed would make a good leader of the Lib Dems.”

Thus the New Labour era came to an end.

As a witness to history, Campbell was in 10 Downing Street with Brown on his last day as prime minister. He had been involved in Brown’s attempt to put together a coalition with the Lib Dems and minor parties that would keep the Tories out. When that failed, Brown prepared to go to the Palace to offer his resignation to the Queen, but there was a last-moment hitch. Jeremy Heywood, Brown’s principal private secretary, said the Queen didn’t want to see him “until she was sure Cameron could form a government”. Brown, on the other hand, didn’t want to “hang around” to give Nick Clegg time to squeeze more concessions from the Tories.

Heywood said: “I don’t want your last day to see a big row with the Queen.”

Brown managed some gallows humour: “Why should I worry – I’ll never see her again.”

From Crash to Defeat: Diaries, volume 7, 2007-2010, by Alastair Campbell. Biteback Publishing £25, e-book £12.99.

Reviews of previous volumes of Alastair Campbell’s diaries: Vol 1, 1994-97 (interview); Vol 2, 1997-99; Vol 3, 1999-2001; Vol 4, 2001-03; Vol 5, 2003-05; Vol 6, 2005-07.