Downing Street is bracing itself for further embarrassing leaks as the hunt continues for the "mole" at the heart of the Blair government.
At the same time ministers sought to brush aside the effects of two damaging leaks in three days, with their renewed focus on government "spin" and presentation, by throwing the spotlight back on the £43 billion spending bonanza of the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown.
Mr Brown led the ministerial fight-back, insisting ministers would not be "diverted" from their long-term programme to rebuild the country's infrastructure and public services. In the Commons, Mr William Hague taunted the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, that Sir Winston Churchill had not secured his place in history by demanding "blood, sweat and `eye catching initiatives'."
But Mr Blair countered that Tory commitments to cut spending by £16 billion would haunt them all the way to the general election.
As Number 10 claimed a deliberate campaign to "undermine" the Prime Minister and show the government "more interested in presentation than substance", a senior Labour backbencher urged ministers to review their electronic security in case internal memos were being captured in cyberspace by computer hackers.
Mr Fraser Kemp, who was a co-ordinator in the party's 1997 election campaign, coupled his advice with a direct challenge to Mr William Hague to deny direct or indirect involvement in the leaks, the latest of which wiped the Chancellor's announcement of the spending review off some of yesterday's front pages.
His intervention followed an assertion by the Education Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, that the leaks were the work of a "mole" with a grudge against the government. "Someone, somewhere has got it in for the government and what they are trying to do is create maximum embarrassment," said Mr Blunkett, adding: "The Tory party are clearly using it as judiciously as they can."
Mr Blunkett insisted that the leaks were only relevant to what had been happening months ago, when the government was going through a bad patch. However, he also reflected backbench unease about the government's perceived reliance on focus groups and poll advisers, declaring: "From now on, I think there will be a lot less memos and a lot more straight talking."
The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Richard Wilson, meanwhile, was asked to extend his leak inquiry to include yesterday's disclosure of a memo from Mr Philip Gould - an adviser to Mr Blair - warning him that the New Labour project had become "contaminated" and that the party's majority could be slashed at the next election.
This is the second time Mr Gould, the prime minister's focus group guru, has been the subject of an embarrassing leak in as many months. In the memo leaked yesterday to the Sun and the Times newspapers, dated May 2nd, Mr Gould identified patriotism and crime as key issues on which Labour was failing to connect with voters, and warned that a real lead of 5 per cent opened the possibility that Labour's majority would fall "dramatically".
The leak of the Gould memo followed Monday's disclosure of an earlier memo sent by Mr Blair himself to senior colleagues, acknowledging a "perception" that his government was "out of touch" with gut British instincts on a range of issues from crime to asylum and defence of the national interest.
Another senior Labour MP, Mr Martin O'Neill, voiced the feelings of many backbenchers, describing Mr Gould as "crazy" for reducing his sensitive advice to writing.