David Hill will take over as head of government communications at Number 10 but, Downing Street say, will "operate within a new structure" which Tony Blair is establishing.
Mr Hill was an assistant to Roy Hattersley from the early 1970s until his time as Labour's Deputy Leader. He worked closely with Mr Hattersley and Neil Kinnock on modernising the Labour party during the 1980s and he headed the Labour press office from 1991 to 1998, before leaving to work in the private sector, becoming a director of the PR firm Good Relations. However he returned for a period to help with Labour's 2001 election campaign.
Mr Campbell has been centre stage during the Hutton Inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly. He said his family has paid a price for his role and pointed out that his partner Fiona Millar is leaving her role as Cherie Blair's advisor in a few weeks time.
Mr Campbell said: "It has been an enormous privilege to work so closely in opposition and in Government for someone I believe history will judge as a great transforming Prime Minister."
Mr Campbell said he did not want to take on "another big job" but hoped to write, broadcast and make speeches.
Mr Blair said Mr Campbell was "an immensely able, fearless, loyal servant of the cause he believes in who was dedicated not only to that cause but to his country ... he was, is, and will remain a good friend."
FULL RESIGNATION STATEMENT:
My family, friends and close colleagues know that I have been thinking for some time about leaving my position as Director of Communications and Strategy. I had intended to leave last summer, but as the Iraq issue developed, the Prime Minister asked me to stay on to oversee Government communications on Iraq, and I was happy to do so.
We agreed on April 7 of this year, however, that I would definitely leave this summer and I have now given the Prime Minister formal notice of my decision to leave. I did not think it appropriate to announce this on a day when Lord Hutton was sitting, and I shall of course continue to be available to assist his Inquiry in any way he wishes. I will also be available in the next few weeks to assist the handover to my successor, who will be announced shortly.
It has been an enormous privilege to work so closely, in Opposition and in Government, for someone I believe history will judge as a great transforming leader of the Labour Party, and a great transforming Prime Minister.
For someone whose professional interests have always been politics and the media, there can be no better job than the one I have been doing, and I will always be grateful for the opportunities I have had since the Prime Minister asked me to work for him when he became leader of the Labour Party in 1994.
I look back with pride and satisfaction at the role I have been able to play in helping to modernise the Labour Party, in helping the Party secure two great election victories and, more important, in the help I have given the Prime Minister and other Ministers in making the historic changes the Government has made to our economy, our society, and Britain's role in the world.
Politics, to me, has always been about having an affirmative agenda for changing your country, and the lives of its people, for the better. This Government has a lot to be proud of. The Minimum Wage. The New Deal. The attack on child poverty. The constitutional changes that have strengthened the UK. Progress in Northern Ireland. Investment and reform leading to better schools and better hospitals. The leadership Britain has shown overseas.
I am honoured to have been part of that process of change. When I first took the job as Press Secretary in Opposition, I recall Ken Baker saying to me that in the media age you can only do a job like this for four years. I have now worked for the Prime Minister for nine years and I know in myself that it is time to move on and do other things, and let others support the Prime Minister in the next phase of the Government's programme of change.
There are huge upsides in a position like this - the people, events and places that you encounter and experience; the feeling that you are able to make a difference; the knowledge that you are witnessing history in the making.
But there are downsides too and these are mostly borne by your family. The reality is that in some jobs, and this is one of them, there is no such thing as a day off, or a night off, or a holiday without interruption. The pressures are real and intense, but in doing the job you learn to live with them.
It is your family that pays a price. Fiona will be leaving Downing Street at the same time, in a few weeks, and intends to return to freelance journalism. We have three wonderful children and we look forward to spending a lot more time with them.
As to my own future, I do not at this stage want to take on another big job as such, but instead for a while hope to do a variety of different things, for example writing, broadcasting, making speeches about the issues that interest and concern me, and on which I have something to say.
I am keen to write not just about politics but other areas of our national life, such as sport. I also want to get more involved in grassroots sports development. I also intend to devote more time and effort to the Leukaemia Research Fund, with which I worked very closely, when running the London Marathon earlier this year.
And of course, politics having been a passion of my life, I will maintain a close interest in it and I will continue to help the political causes I believe in in any way I can.
Finally, I want to thank colleagues across Government, but especially my own team in Downing Street who have been an enormous source of strength and support through the good times and the bad. Not least thanks to them, and the team spirit we have built, I will leave with far more memories of the good days than the bad.
I also leave knowing that despite the pressures and the strains, I have a friendship with the Prime Minister which will endure and I leave knowing that whatever the crises, the dramas, the things that went wrong as well as the things that went right, he gave me a big job, a big challenge and I strove at all times to do it to the best of my ability, and hopefully made a difference for the better.
YOUR TEXTS:
I strongly support Blair's position. We went to war and soldiers have died for their country. Honour their memory and stop questioning it. T MOSELEY ESSEX
Deception by cunning word arrangememt, more despicable than lying, Ian Flintoff
the PM must have something up his sleeve, I doubt very much that Tony would set himself up to resign. Slippery as they all seem. ' Dennis Broeward.
Its obvious the government misled the public over 3 months later & no weapons have been found the question is if they did it intentionally.. A.Muir middx
I no longer trust Blair. I won't be voting for Labour again while he is in the party hierarchy. Stewart Adamson, London.
who cares whether blair is sincere or not? He is p-minister not c-of-e minister. This war was illegal. He shld go. (anon)
wider picture = Bush greed for oil and Blair need to please. Could Kelly become a martyr in the fight for honest moral government? Spark revolution? (anon)
Yes I think the government misled the country and think there should be a vote of no confidence to draw a line under the whole situation. (anon)
i feel the goverment has attack the very frabric of uk democracey and the government should own up propaly 2 its responsibilitys nigel doughty lincolnshire
I think the PM was mislead by MrBush causing him to inadvertently to mislead the UK people. (anon)
Of course we were. anyone who has the most basic knowledge of the reality of iraq knew this and should have been listened 2 bfore 1000s wdre killed (anon)
saddam's gone. Who cares how? Why can't everyone just get over it? (anon)
The P M is being truthful Dr Kelly s name was known to the Press and Parliament would have demanded the name from Mr Blair euentually forcing his hand' (anon)
I agree Blair lied- It's time for a vote of no confidence. Surviving a vote is the only way to regain a mandate, but I don't think he could. (anon)
he blatantly misled the public in this enquiry.If saddam had any weapons he would have used them already!! Salik nawaz middlesex
blair is a liar who was hellbent on going 2 war and has lied from start 2 finish. He must resign immediately. Gareth, portsmouth.
yes, the government did deceive us. It's a clear testament that spin is more powerful than the truth. (anon)
i dont mean 2 sound like a politician, but its probly 2 early 2 say delibr8ly misleading. It'l cum out in the spin dryer i'm sure. (anon)
all government officials are bent and full of themselves on a power trip. (anon)
- emphatically YES. Charades, lies and corruption at every level (anon)
Yes, there was and still is no fundamental evidence submitted to the public (anon)
I believe that the government did mislead the public on Iraqi WMD. It is the begging of an American style of rule in this country. James from Ipswich
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