A CAMPAIGN has started at Westminster to force Burnley's most famous political football fan Alaistair Campbell to quit 10 Downing Street's press office.

Former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley this week said: "The time has come for Campbell to go. He has become a liability."

There are mutterings among MPs, and even some Ministers, that like Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan, Mr Campbell has become the story.

Lord Hattersley said that while Mr Campbell remained in Downing Street, the suspicion would persist that Tony Blair was more interested in news management and spin than managing the economy and the country.

He said that: "Every honest endeavour to think less about headlines and think more about results will be interpreted as yet more attempts to manipulate the headlines."

Lord Hattersley said Mr Blair had to convince voters that he believed in something and Mr Campbell "is not the man to carry that message."

RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans has cried "foul" over Gordon Brown's budget promise to lop 14p a pint off the cost of beer from micro breweries for the World Cup.

Backed by David Grant of Moorhouse's Brewery in Burnley, he said the reduction of duty was never going to be passed on to the drinker and soccer fan but used to increase investment in the breweries.

Tony front bencher Mr Evans said: "This was a sleight of hand by the Chancellor. He knew it wouldn't produce a cut in the cost of a pint.

HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope has backed the call for a House of Commons cat to tackle the growing army of mice in the Houses of Parliament.

He said: "I am not in favour of hunting with hounds but we do need a suitably efficient cat to catch the mice. There are hundreds of them".