Alastair Campbell (pictured) has waded into the row over controversial new controls over newspapers

Alastair Campbell has waded into the row over controversial new restraints over newspapers – by urging MPs to reject them.

Mr Campbell, press secretary to Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister, expressed fears that new data protection rules, backed by the House of Lords but now to be debated by MPs, were a threat to ‘good, honest, proper journalism’.

Under the proposed changes, most newspapers – including the local press – would have to pay all legal costs in cases involving data protection even if they won.

Mr Campbell warned: ‘It is right that people traduced by the press have right of redress but this proposed tightening of data protection law is wide open to abuse.’