With Blair comes Campbell?

Alistair Campbell popped up in the Financial Times today with a letter in which he criticised George Osbourne for being more interested in short term political tactics than long term economic policy.

In the letter Campbell says:

“His initiative on curbing bankers’ bonuses, which fell apart on minimal scrutiny, is but the latest to draw fire from City and business leaders. It was attacked not for being tough, but because it was not thought through.

He suffered a similar credibility hit a few weeks ago when brandishing documents he claimed to have been leaked, which in truth had been published at the time of the last Budget. The media mini-frenzy was a short-term tactical gain at the expense of strategic credibility. Likewise the constantly changing figures on savings from his welfare reform proposals do little to enhance his standing.

All these mistakes reveal a trend, which will become a problem during the heat of a campaign, when his party’s positions on the handling of the economic crisis may come under greater scrutiny than they did at the time.”

Although it seems obvious, what Campbell has done here is identify a recurring weakness in one of the top Tory politicians based on solid examples. It is this sort of rational, well thought out argument that the Labour party could do with in the lead up to the election, and this is seemingly not going unnoticed.

The website, PoliticsHome today ran a survey within political circles on whether Brown would be well advised to bring Campbell formally back into the government for the election. And the answer was yes.

The site said: “Overall, fifty nine per cent of the Phi100 - a politically balanced panel comprising MPs and peers, party strategists, media commentators and executives, think tank directors and academics – think that Brown should bring Campbell back into the fold. “

In truth, this probably wouldn’t be a good idea as with Campbell comes a lot of baggage that might make him an easy target for the Tories. But it is clear that, like Blair, Campbell has the potential to play a significant but informal role as the election draws closer.