Alastair Campbell in quotes

Alastair Campbell

Alastair Campbell fired off some memorable quotes in his days in Downing Street - and had some barbed wits aimed at him. Here is a selection.

"What we don't do is sit around wallowing and navel-gazing. What you do is come out fighting and make your case." After Mr Blair's humiliation at the hands of the Women's Institute.

"The media are obsessed with spin doctors and with portraying them as a bad thing, yet seem addicted to our medicine."

"I simply say, in relation to the BBC story, it is a lie ... that is continually repeated, and until we get an apology for it I will keep making sure that Parliament and people like yourselves know that it was a lie." Appearing before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

"There is something in me that makes me see things through. You don't bloody ditch and dump."

"The day of the daredevil reporter who refuses to see obstacles to getting the truth, and seeing it with his or her own eyes, seems to have died." Criticising the reporting of the Kosovo conflict.

"We don't do God. I'm sorry. We don't do God." When asked about Mr Blair's religious views.

"The prime minister is not a gay gangster." Responding to attacks by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

"What becomes very clear the longer you go is that Labour councils look after the paving stones better than the Tory councils." While training for the London Marathon.

"I don't want to make a complete prat of myself." before the same race.

"He was fun to the last. I know I should never have liked him, but I did. I know I shouldn't miss him, but I will." On the late Tory MP Alan Clark.

"You great quivering jelly of indecision." Tory MP Boris Johnson.

"Don't worry. He's a reformed drunk." - The prime minister, explaining to Russian President Putin why teetotaller Campbell was refusing drinks.

"I hope you redeem yourself with other sins." - Putin to Campbell.