Hattersley calls for Byers to go

Labour support for Stephen Byers began to crumble today, with more calls from his own side for him to go - and a warning that the warfare in his department was disrupting the Government.

One of Labour's most senior figures, former deputy leader Lord Hattersley, today added his voice to the calls for Mr Byers to resign.

Downing Street and the Labour Party machine intensified the effort to save the Transport Secretary's skin after yet another member of his press office, head of news Ian Jones, was ordered out. Mr Jones was suspended on full pay as part of a leak inquiry following the enforced departures of communications chief Martin Sixsmith and Mr Byers's spin doctor, Jo Moore.

For the second week running, loyalist MPs were summoned to back Mr Byers as he faced the Commons.

On the last occasion, when he admitted telling an untruth on television over his role in Mr Sixsmith's sacking, he was saved by a concerted Labour support campaign and a weak Tory attack. This afternoon, Conservatives were hoping to use Mr Byers's regular Commons question time to accuse him of misleading Parliament on the same issue.

Mr Hattersley, speaking on BBC News 24, declared: "I think he should go and I think he will go."

He went on: "He has become a subject of deep embarrassment to the Government and, while he remains, attention will be deflected from the job he's supposed to do to questions about his character. I think he is fatally damaged."

Tony Blair will come under fire over the affair when he returns tomorrow from the Commonwealth conference in Australia to face Prime Minister's questions. Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has demanded to know whether it is true that Mr Blair intervened personally to save Ms Moore after her first blunder, her email calling 11 September a good day to "bury" bad government news.

The great majority of Labour MPs continue to back Mr Byers, popular for his decision to bring Railtrack back under government control.

? Sleaze charges returned to haunt the Government today as ministers faced another Commons grilling over Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. MPs were digging in for a four-hour debate on Mr Blair's help for Mr Mittal, a Labour Party donor, in his attempt to buy a steelworks in Romania.