Brown aide resigns over emails

Apr 11 2009

One of Gordon Brown's closest aides has resigned after sending "juvenile and inappropriate" emails from a Number 10 account.

The Prime Minister said there was "no place" in politics for such material, sent by Damian McBride to Derek Draper, who runs a Labour-supporting website.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister has accepted Mr McBride's resignation.

"Neither the Prime Minister, nor anybody else in Downing St, had knowledge of these emails.

"It is the Prime Minister's view that there is no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind, which is why it is right that Mr McBride and Mr Draper took the decision not to publish this material and regrettable that others are choosing to do so."

Mr McBride said in a statement that he was "shocked and appalled" at the way his emails had been used but regretted any embarrassment caused to the Government.