Byers may sack Sixsmith deputy

Stephen Byers's battled-scarred department is facing another round of bloodletting with the threat of fresh trouble for the Transport Secretary and for Tony Blair.

There were question marks today over the future of the department's acting press chief, Ian Jones - the deputy to Martin Sixsmith who was forced out last month.

Whitehall sources suggested that Mr Byers was unhappy with Mr Jones, suspecting, rightly or wrongly, that he was part of the dissident group out to sabotage him.

Mr Byers resisted Mr Jones appointment earlier this year, backing instead an outside lobbyist favoured by his spin doctor, Jo Moore, who was ousted at the same time as Mr Sixsmith. He has also begun moves to set up a separate media team outside the press office structure and responsible directly to him. However, another sacking or "resignation" could blow the row wide open again.

Mr Byers faced continued calls today for his own sacking. Veteran Labour MP Tam Dalyell told BBC radio's Westminister Hour last night that Mr Byers should go because the warfare was "very damaging" to his department. Mr Dalyell is a regular critic of the Government and the vast majority of Labour MPs have rallied behind the Transport Secretary, as has Downing Street. The Government's difficulties, however, were intensified-today with the launching of a new inquiry into relations between ministers, their special advisers and the civil service.

The investigation by the Committee on Standards in Public Life is expected to home in on the feud over "burying" bad news, the charge against Ms Moore from Mr Sixsmith.

The committee's chairman Sir Nigel Wicks promised there would be "no punch-pulling". Sir Nigel backed the call from the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Richard Wilson, for a new legal code to control special advisers. The Government has effectively conceded that it will bring in a Civil Service Bill but, as yet, has given no promises about the timing.

Comment: Blair and political gravity