Damian McBride, the former spin doctor for Gordon Brown who was forced to resign over a smear scandal, has been hired by Labour to be political adviser to Emily Thornberry, the shadow defence secretary.

McBride will work on communications for Thornberry, and will in particular focus on her defence review, which is considering whether to recommend that Labour drops support for Trident nuclear submarines.

It is understood he applied for the job and was considered in an open process. He will start work in just more than a week.

McBride resigned from Brown’s team in 2009 over explosive leaked emails discussing how to smear senior Conservatives, including David Cameron’s wife, Samantha, with untrue rumours about their private lives.

The exchange with Labour blogger Derek Draper involved discussions about setting up a website to air scurrilous allegations about opponents, including unfounded allegations about affairs between leading opposition MPs.

In 2013, McBride published a book expressing regret for his past behaviour, which was serialised in the Daily Mail and ended up overshadowing Labour’s autumn party conference.

At the time, his tactics were described by former shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, as “despicable” and Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, said McBride was “a relic from the past and there is no place for that kind of nasty, vile politics in Britain today and I’m glad we’ve seen the back of him”.

Since his departure from Downing Street, McBride has worked in communications for the Catholic church aid agency and has become a prominent commentator and blogger.

He was particularly critical of former Labour leader Ed Miliband for failing to have a clear message going into the election, suggesting some of his policies were a “steaming pile of fudge”.

As recently as this year, he suggested the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, could face a coup from within the party from sacked shadow ministers Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden as soon as October.

He also stressed that he agreed with Corbyn on austerity, HS2, Syria, Trident and any number of other issues while harbouring doubts about the party’s ability to convince swing voters.