Blair's buddy Campbell commits potty-mouthed email blunder

Tony Blair's former spin doctor-in-chief Alastair Campbell has committed a stunning digital blunder which saw him fire off a four-letter tirade in error to a journalist at the BBC.

Reacting angrily to allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour's recently binned campaign posters, an email sent in error by Campbell to the Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen, when intended for ad agency TBWA, suggested the BBC should "fuck off and cover something important".

He also referred to BBC journalists at "twats", adding to a rift between the spin doctor and the broadcaster which first reached a head over the 'dodgy dossier' in 2004.

However, Campbell tried to laugh off the blunder, attributing it to not being "very good at this email Blackberry malarkey" in a second email.

He also suggested it is the kind of 'joke' he might normally share with Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman.

"Final sentence of earlier email probably a bit colourful and personal considering we have never actually met but I'm sure you share the same sense of humour as your star presenter Mr P," he wrote.

Despite a chequered track record, Campbell, was recently welcomed back into Downing Street by Tony Blair to work on the campaign for the forthcoming General Election.

But he sparked fresh controversy following the shelved launch of a poster campaign portraying Tory leader Michael Howard as a 'Shylock' character as well as a second poster which cast shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin and Howard as flying pigs.

The pictures raised criticism among the Jewish community leading Labour MP Andrew Dismore, who represents a large Jewish community in his Hendon constituency, to brand them "puerile" and "offensive".

Colleagues have done little to rally around Campbell. A Downing Street spokesman told The Independent: "The person you are referring to is capable of speaking for himself and he no longer works in government."

Clearly keen to disenfranchise more voters, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the same newspaper the technophobia which lead to the blunder probably owes much to Campbell's Burnley roots and his support for the town's football club – often portrayed by rival clubs' fans as being backwards and in-bred.

"The fact a Burnley fan should be technologically challenged comes as no surprise," he said.