PRIME MINISTER WANTS END TO THE CULTURE OF SPIN

MOVES to end the "culture of spin" that is dogging the Government and
appears to be threatening its popularity are expected to be ordered by Tony
Blair.

The Prime Minister will try to escape from the barrage of rows over
presentation and manipulation by asking ministers to make more statements
to Parliament and do more on-the-record interviews.

At the same time, ministers will be urged to be more confident about their
speeches and less concerned about the needs of the media. "If there is no
announcement in a speech, that does not make it a bad speech," a government
source said. "We must be less worried about headlines. Let's make the
speeches, tell people in our words what we are doing, but if there is no
obvious announcement, we should not be apologising for it."

After a week dominated by claims that the Government had tried to smear the
Paddington Survivors' Group, an exasperated Prime Minister tried to rise
above the fray yesterday with a speech outlining the expansion of schemes
requiring benefit claimants to take work offers.

He spoke as Clare Short became the first Cabinet minister openly to call
for an end to "spin". Downing Street admitted that the Government had hung
on to the tactics of Opposition for too long and Alastair Campbell, his
communications director, said that mistakes had been made in the Paddington
e-mail affair.

Mr Blair's spokesman said that if the Government's achievements were being
clouded by accusations of spin, "we have to look at how we address that".
It was an admission that Mr Blair and ministers accept that constant
accusations of spin are damaging, and must be tackled.

His frustration over the resurfacing of spin rows is acute because after
the election he told his communications and special adviser team that it
was time to do less "spinning".

But the Jo Moore e-mail row dominated the first year of this Parliament and
last week's disclosure that a special adviser had tried to discover the
political leanings of the Paddington rail group have left the Government
facing bitter public criticism again.

Communications staff in No 10 are at a loss about what to do because the
newspapers who call for advance information about speeches such as Mr
Blair's yesterday often accuse them of "spin" after they have run stories
about what Mr Blair will say. Officials said the only information given out
about yesterday's speech was in response to queries from journalists.
Journalists who did call were told it would be a comparatively dry speech
without any "new" announcements. "Yet when it does not turn out to be the
way it was written up, we get accused of spinning, not the journalists," an
official said. Mr Blair's decision to give evidence before the chairmen of
Commons select committees and changes to the Westminster Lobby system,
which will see the daily briefing by officials replaced by an on-the-record
ministerial appearance most mornings, are the latest moves to try to end
the culture of spin.

Mr Blair's speech and one yesterday by Gordon Brown on the Comprehensive
Spending Review were clear attempts to show that the Government had not
been blown off course by the resignation of Stephen Byers.

Ms Short, meanwhile, called for a halt to spin. "I think the Government has
a good track record of running the economy, of improving public services .
. . all that is lost, all those fine achievements of the Labour Government,
everything that the party exists for," she told BBC Radio 4a's The
Westminster Hour last night.