GORDON BROWN bears personal responsibility for creating the sort of culture that allowed a senior Downing Street aide to consider smearing senior Tories, David Cameron said last night.

The Conservative leader, who was among those targeted by Damian McBride, said only a change of Government would bring an end to such “nonsense”. “What this whole episode demonstrates is the need for change. Not change in the special advisers code, but change in the culture at Number 10 Downing Street,” he said,

“I do not think we will get a change in culture until we get a change in leadership, and we won’t get a change in leadership until we get a change of government.

“These people have just been in power too long; they have forgotten who they are serving, what they are meant to be doing, how they are meant to behave and we need some change. I do not know what Gordon Brown knew and when he knew it, but what I do know is that he hired these people, he sets the culture, he is the leader and we need change in order to change the culture and stop this sort of nonsense.”

Mr McBride, a close adviser to the Prime Minister for almost a decade, resigned in disgrace after admitting that he sent “juvenile and inappropriate'' emails from his Downing Street account to former spin doctor Derek Draper.

In the private emails, the two men discussed setting up an “attack blog” called Red Rag that would spread unfounded gossip about Conservative opponents and their families.

The Prime Minister wrote to all those targeted by the stories, which he accepts were all untrue, expressing his “deep regret” over the affair.