Stand-up accuses Alastair Campbell

A comedian has accused Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell of stealing jokes for his after-dinner speeches.

No 10’s former director of communications was confronted by a stand-up after he was spotted taking copious notes during a show at London’s Comedy Store last month.

However Campbell, who has also helped with Gordon Brown's speeches, insisted he was simply a ‘compulsive scribbler’, and that none of the material would end up in his after-dinner routine.

The incident took place at a benefit in aid of children's charity Camp Quality UK, which Campbell hosted, and is reported in today’s Daily Telegraph. However the newspaper does not name which comedian was involved – although Paul Tonkinson, Dominic Holland, Robin Ince and Tim Vine were all on the bill.

It is not the first time Campbell’s writing has landed him in trouble; although when he was accused of ‘sexing up’ the dodgy dossier on Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction – which included plagiarising large sections from a graduate student’s article – the consequences were rather more dire.

Published: 2 Dec 2009