Sex secret 'poison' spin doctor McBride and minister: one-night stand drunk party adds twist Labour smear scandal Friends of former spin doctor McBride say he had drunken one-night stand Woman - who has not been named - was a Labour Minister Sources close to her vehemently deny the couple had sex Mr McBride has refused to comment on the revelations By Simon Walters and Glen Owen Gordon Brown's controversial former spin doctor Damian McBride had a drunken one-night stand with a Labour Minister, it was claimed. Friends of Mr McBride, whose blockbuster memoirs have revealed the political back-stabbings and chaos in Mr Brown's Downing Street regime, say he had sex with the woman after a booze-fuelled party. The raucous event was attended by Whitehall mandarins and Labour aides close to Mr Brown, including figures with close links to Ed Miliband. After it ended, Mr McBride spent the night at the woman's home. Critics will claim that this latest allegation underlines the public interest in the amoral political world in which Mr Brown's spin doctor operated The party took place at the peak of Mr Brown's power when the woman involved was an influential Labour figure. She also served as a Labour Minister. Mr McBride has declined to comment on the claim. A source close to the woman - whom The Mail on Sunday has decided not to name - confirmed Mr McBride spent the night at her house, but said he did so only because he was "too drunk to go home." The source vehemently denied the couple had sex. A friend of Mr McBride said the spin doctor had told those close to him that he had sex with a well-known Labour figure, whom he named. "He said he had been to a party, there was a lot of drinking and they ended up in bed together having sex," said the friend. The claim adds a shocking new dimension to the McBride scandal with more explosive revelations expected when the book is published this week. Critics will claim that this latest allegation underlines the public interest in the amoral political world in which Mr Brown's spin doctor operated. Mr Miliband's aides further fear the book could wreck the Labour conference, which opens in Brighton tomorrow. In a separate development, "bullying" Mr Brown is today attacked by former Labour Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell, who is not the woman in the alleged McBride sex romp. She called on Mr Brown to disown Mr McBride - dubbed McPoison for his damaging briefings - and said she did not believe claims that the former Prime Minister had nothing to do with his actions. Ms Jowell, who confronted Mr Brown after a member of his team smeared her, said he must shoulder the blame for Mr McBride's "disgusting and corrupt" conduct. "There was a corrupt culture which had nothing to do with serving the British people but was about personal ambition," she said in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. I feel sickened it was not just tolerated but encouraged at the heart of government. Gordon is not an innocent, it is inconceivable he did not know what Damian was doing. 'In the absence of a very clear statement by Gordon that he didn't know about it, it damages his reputation. Mr Miliband's aides further fear the book could wreck the Labour conference, which opens in Brighton tomorrow The latest extracts from Mr McBride's book also claim that Mr Miliband sent potentially damaging emails to a party official plotting to discredit opponents. The second instalment of the memoir, published in the Daily Mail yesterday, suggested that the Labour leader might "have problems" if his exchanges with party insider Derek Draper - who conspired with Mr McBride to smear political rivals - ever emerged. Labour yesterday flatly denied the claim, saying Mr Miliband was not involved in any plan to smear or spread lies about opponents and had no recollection about any emails. A spokesman added that Mr Miliband had told Gordon Brown in September 2008 he was concerned about Mr McBride's activities and disapproved of them. Mr McBride's book also alleges that Mr Miliband's inner circle was behind anonymous attacks on Ed Balls, and concludes that Mr Miliband "clearly inherited all the ruthless genes in that family." Other extracts include the revelation that Mr Brown discussed the possibility of putting troops on to the streets as the 2008 banking crisis grew. They also detailed how David Cameron had sent Mr Brown a furious Christmas card after Mr Brown accused Mr Cameron of using his children as "props," and how a senior official broke down in tears as Mr Brown told Mr McBride to leak secret details of the EU budget. Meanwhile shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander denied claims by Mr McBride that he knifed his politician sister, Wendy, by telling Mr Brown "that she had to quit" following a row about donations to her Scottish Labour leadership campaign. Mr Alexander said: "I always supported my sister and I never supported Damian McBride. That might explain why he writes about me in those terms. He was discredited when he left Downing Street. The politics he embodied has been completely discredited and thankfully the Labour Party has moved on. He added that "lying" was "what Damian McBride does." Yesterday's extracts revealed for the first time the extent of Mr McBride's drinking. He told how he had enjoyed a "cracker" of a 35th birthday in 2005, when he combined afternoon drinking with briefings to journalists in which he claimed that Mr Brown had put "lead in Tony Blair's pencil" over EU negotiations. He fell asleep on the sofa and woke up at midday the next day to find he had 26 missed calls, including several from a furious Mr Brown - who had been bawled by Mr Blair over the newspaper stories. It came as Ed Balls admitted for the first time that he had been part of a "macho" gang around Mr Brown. He said: "We were young and inexperienced . . . it was a mistake and it was damaging to the Government." Damian had two nicknames, 'Mad Dog' and 'McPoison'. Only the latter was accurate. He was, and still is, a very sophisticated political operator. By DAN HODGES Labour Adviser I could have been Damian McBride.When Gordon Brown was looking for a new communications adviser, I was asked by two Brown allies if I wanted the job. I did. But as is the way of Westminster, I never heard anything again and Damian moved into position. Gordon made the right call. I was a spin-chorister compared to Damian. As the storm over his new book has revealed, few political advisors have inspired such fear and loathing. By Damian's own admission, anything and anyone was fair game. His only rule? There were no rules. Damian McBride is Labour's Keyser Soze, the almost supernaturally evil villain from the film The Usual Suspects. Six years after he vanished from frontline politics, many still fear the hand of McBride reaching out in the night and inflicting some terrible vengeance. Although a neat analogy, Damian McBride is not one of the usual suspects. Contrary to the popular impression of him as a Neanderthal hatchet-man, he has a fearsome intellect. An alumnus of Peterhouse, Cambridge, he is a much-prized member of the teams at the pub quizzes he loves to frequent. Damian had two nicknames, "Mad Dog" and "McPoison." And as one of his Blairite foes has grudgingly conceded, Damian was persistent, and ruthless, in pursuit of his prey. "He practised methodical destruction," he said. One of the reasons for this is that Damian was not a political activist, but a career civil servant. He worked in the Treasury, where he was spotted by Brown, who made him his personal press aide. Over the past few days a number of people have condemned his "disloyalty" to Labour. But he was a Brown man, not a Labour man. Those saying Damian would have nothing if it wasn't for the party miss the point. He believes he'd have nothing if it wasn't for Gordon Brown. He also enjoys a drink, and a karaoke mike. After a hard day in the Treasury he could often be spotted holding court in a Soho drinking den. Although not a founder member, Damian's hard-carousing ways quickly earned him acceptance into the notoriously tightly-knit Brown inner circle. "It's just what we Brownites are like," one of Damian's friends told me. We're not Blairites, with their fine wines and dinner parties. We like a curry and a sing-song. Fatefully, so did Damian. He was also able to expand Brown's circle of press contacts. "Damian loved political gossip and process," said another friend. "He'd sit there and tell you the most outrageous things, then say, ""of course, that's all off the record"."" He found the rigid strictures of the civil service machine frustrating, and revelled in the freedom to brief openly. "I think that was part of the problem," said one Labour insider. He'd been sitting there kicking his heels at the Treasury, then along came Brown and suddenly he was part of this Alpha-male, all-lads-together culture. It was like the leash had been taken off. Damian's critics view the publication of his diaries as an act of supreme selfishness. But he has been told via intermediaries there's no prospect of a return to Labour's inner circle while Ed Miliband is leader. The book has also created further tensions in his now-strained relationship with Brown himself. I could never really have been Damian McBride. I'm not tough enough, ruthless enough, or sophisticated enough. Plus, I'm rubbish at karaoke.