"Very dangerous...": Tony Blair's spin doctor Alastair Campbell on Burnham, Brexit and losing the Red Wall

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

He was the man responsible for communicating the policies of Tony Blair's New Labour government to the public in the 1990s and early 2000s.

But former Number 10 Director of Communications Alastair Campbell admits Labour lost seats in its Northern heartlands - including Greater Manchester areas like Leigh and Heywood and Middleton - in part because 'their support was taken for granted'. Read more: Culture Secretary blames Tory local election losses on pandemic and Putin's invasion of Ukraine Born in Keighley in 1957, the author and broadcaster has fond memories of the beautiful scenery around his West Yorkshire home and a childhood of following Burnley FC, Keighley Cougars and Yorkshire cricket.

And, as he tells The Northern Agenda podcast, he might still be living in the area were it not for a serious injury that befell his father, a vet who'd moved to Yorkshire for work from Scotland before Alastair was born. Listen to the full interview on The Northern Agenda podcast below "He was vaccinating some piglets and this sow attacked him," he recalls of the incident, which happened when he was about 10. "It battered him up against a wall, he ended up quite badly injured." His father's injuries were such that he was forced to sell his Keighley practice and join the Ministry of Agriculture, meaning the family was moved to Leicester.

These days Alastair still often returns to the North but generally to watch Burnley. After going into journalism he ended up becoming official spokesman for Tony Blair and spending several years running the Labour Prime Minister's communications.