Born 1957. Journalist and author and former press secretary to Tony Blair as Leader of the Opposition (1994-97) and as Prime minister (1997-2000). From 2000-2003, he was director of communications for the Labour Party (2000-03). Before 1994, he had been political editor of Today newspaper and the Daily Mirror. Campbell gave detailed testimony on the political media and what he saw as the decline of genuine investigative journalism and the increasing tendency of owners, editors and senior journalists to wish to be political players. Embellishment and pure invention were tolerated and encouraged by some editors and owners, he said.
Public relations consultant at time of giving evidence and a former editor of The Sun newspaper, which he left in 1998. Higgins had worked for The Sun from 1979 as their West Country reporter and acquired notoriety when he was arrested in 1982 after being found with a Sun photographer "testing security" at Highgrove House, the home of the Prince of Wales. In 1994, he became editor of the paper, quickly winning Scoop of the Year awards for a story about the Queen ordering the then Princess of Wales and the Prince of Wales to divorce.
