Brown blocks Downing Street plan for White House-style briefings

Tony Blair is to shelve plans for White House-style televised press briefings by his officials after protests by other ministers led by Gordon Brown. A review of government communications to be published today will call for more televised briefings to open up the closed world of Westminster to the public. But the briefings will be handled by ministers rather than officials.

Downing Street wants Mr Blair's two official spokesmen, Godric Smith and Tom Kelly, to appear on live television like C J Cregg, the fictional White House press secretary seen in the TV series The West Wing. But some cabinet ministers, including Mr Brown, believe that elected ministers, rather than civil servants, should be the Government's public face.

Ministers are likely to give regular briefings on their own policy areas rather than give the daily morning briefing for Westminster journalists and London-based foreign correspondents. Several ministers are reluctant to face questions on issues ranging across government, for which they would need to be intensively briefed to avoid mistakes.

One minister said yesterday: "We would be hounded on the story of the day. It would be like appearing on Question Time. It is better for ministers to speak about their own areas." On-camera ministerial briefings were tried in 2002 but petered out because ministers were reluctant to appear.

The one that received the most coverage was when Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, was contradicted by Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, who was chief of the defence staff, over the impact of the firemen's strike on the armed forces.

Today's report by a committee chaired by Bob Phillis, chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, will warn that a "breakdown of trust" between the Government, the media and the public has turned people off politics. The group says the media also has to show a greater responsibility in reporting politics. Ideas to increase transparency include greater use of the internet and greater use of regional and local media.

Douglas Alexander, the Cabinet Office minister, will hold talks with Westminster journalists about on-camera briefings. One compromise plan would be for most televised ones to be given by ministers.

The Government says it has already acted to combat spin after the departure of Alastair Campbell as Downing Street's director of communications and strategy. It is recruiting a new permanent secretary to head the Government Information and Communications Service, to ensure that a neutral civil servant rather than a political aide is in charge.