But there are doubts that he would attract a high-calibre figure while Mr Campbell remained at Number 10 in a more senior position.Front-runners from within the government machine are Godric Smith, Mr Campbell’s deputy; Philip Bassett, who heads Downing Street’s strategic communications unit; and Tom Kelly, the director of communications at the Northern Ireland Office.Mr Blair already faces the prospect of a big shake-up of his closest advisers. Sally Morgan, his political secretary, is expected to stand down and be replaced by Anji Hunter, a long-standing friend and ally who is now his special assistant. Ms Hunter has also considered leaving Downing Street.Mr Blair has already lost one close ally from his Cabinet in Peter Mandelson, who resigned in January over the Hinduja passport affair. He is keen to prevent further departures from his inner circle.Others who may move on to new posts after the election include his senior private secretaries, Jeremy Haywood and John Sawers.

Their planned moves have prompted a wider review of Downing Street staff.. When the comedian Rory Bremner started to portray Alastair Campbell as the man who tells Tony Blair what to do, a rather anxious Mr Blair ordered his staff to get him a video of the programme so he could see what everyone was talking about. When the comedian Rory Bremner started to portray Alastair Campbell as the man who tells Tony Blair what to do, a rather anxious Mr Blair ordered his staff to get him a video of the programme so he could see what everyone was talking about.Downing Street may laugh off the idea that the press secretary calls the shots; Mr Campbell jokes that the actor who plays him has not got his accent right and has too many chins. But Mr Campbell’s high media profile is no longer a laughing matter. It has helped to persuade him and the Prime Minister that he should adopt a new backroom role if Labour wins the general election.He intends to withdraw from briefing the press to devote his energies to long-term strategic planning on how to sell the Government’s key policies.

Mr Blair is expected to appoint a new press secretary, with Mr Campbell taking on a new post of Downing Street director of communications.Friends say Mr Campbell has considered leaving Number 10 after becoming increasingly frustrated by his day-to-day infighting with the media.But Mr Blair is determined to keep one of his closest aides on board by creating a new role for him. After becoming Labour leader in 1994, Mr Blair virtually pursued Mr Campbell, then political editor of The Mirror, across France during his summer break to persuade him to become his press secretary. Mr Blair got his man, whom he describes as “the best in the business”.The first journalistic efforts of the Cambridge-educated Mr Campbell were on a soft-porn magazine called Forum, for which he penned a column called The Rivieria Gigolo. During the European Union summit in Nice last December, he said: “The last time I was in Nice it was for a year, and I had much more fun.”As a political journalist, Mr Campbell admitted he was more a propagandist than a reporter; he often ploughed a lonely furrow to correct the heavy Tory bias of Fleet Street. He was a close ally of Neil Kinnock, advising him while working as political editor of the Sunday Mirror. He enjoyed good relations with some Tories, including the late Alan Clark, but there was no disguising his loyalties: he infuriated John Major by saying that he tucked his shirt inside his underpants.Mr Campbell was seen as a fiery, colourful character in the Westminster press gallery.