http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169226/Dirty-tricks-row-leaked-Downing-Street-emails-smear-Tories.html
Dirty tricks row as leaked Downing Street emails 'smear top Tories'
By MICHAEL LEA
Last updated at 9:15 AM on 11th April 2009
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Downing Street was today embroiled in an embarrassing dirty tricks row amid claims that one of Gordon Brown's senior aides sent emails smearing top Tories.
The 'juvenile and inappropriate' messages are said to have been littered with innuendo and lurid allegations about the private lives of David Cameron, George Osborne and other Conservative MPs.
They were sent in January from a supposedly secure Number 10 account by special adviser Damian McBride.
Inappropriate: The emails sent by Damian McBride (l) to political blogger Derek Draper (r) were deemed 'juvenile and inappropriate' by Number 10
However, in a development which will alarm security chiefs, they have since fallen into the hands of Paul Staines, one of Britain’s most controversial political bloggers, who writes under the name 'Guido Fawkes'.
The emails had been sent originally to Derek Draper, a close friend of Lord Mandelson, who also runs an influential political blog.
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If they were obtained by someone hacking into the Number 10 computer system or into Mr Draper’s computer, the police will almost certainly be called in to investigate.
But as Downing Street hurriedly distanced Gordon Brown from the affair last night a spokesman insisted: 'We are not aware of any security breach in the No 10 system.'
He added: 'Neither the Prime Minister nor anybody else in Downing Street, except the author, knew anything about any of these private emails.
'The author of these emails has apologised for their juvenile and inappropriate nature and for the embarrassment caused.
Smutty: The emails are said to contain lurid allegations about David Cameron's personal life
'All staff will be reminded of the appropriate use of Number 10 resources.'
One Sunday newspaper is understood to be preparing to publish full embarrassing details of the email exchanges, although a source close to the Downing Street official and Mr Draper himself played down their content.
The source told the Daily Telegraph: 'They were knocking round some ideas for a blog, but the whole thing never got past first base.
'To call it an orchestrated smear campaign is ridiculous. It was just some ill-judged gossip between friends which was never meant to see the light of day. They appear to be some ideas — laid out in embarrassing detail — for stories which could appear on a Left-wing version of the Guido Fawkes blog called Red Rag.
'They’re all stories which have been doing the rounds in Westminster for a while, written up in a scurrilous style. But the website has never appeared, so it’s hard to see what it was all about.
'It’s just embarrassing for Number 10 that members of staff are spending their time sending smutty emails to their mates instead of running the country.'
Labour strategists have become increasingly concerned that the party is losing the internet war to Right-leaning bloggers and in January Mr Draper set up a website, LabourList.org.
It attacked Mr Staines - who is hostile to the Government - and collated a dossier with evidence about the 'past and present activities of Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes'.
Mr Staines has in the past accused Damian McBride, a senior Downing Street adviser, of orchestrating Mr Draper’s campaigns against alleged racist remarks on the Guido Fawkes website.
For the past two days he has featured a picture of Mr McBride in a shotgun's cross-sights on his blog under the headline: 'He Who Lives By The Smear...', but with no other detail.
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