FEARED DOWNING STREET Spin
Alastair Campbell’s daughter has revealed her dad used to stride around their house in swimming trunks, just like his alter-ego Malcolm Tucker.
Stand-up comic Grace’s dad – Tony Blair’s former spin doctor – is regarded as the inspiration for Tucker in the satirical TV show The Thick Of It.
Grace, who was still in school when her dad was working for Blair in No10, laughed as she revealed it’s her favourite TV show of all time.
She said: “Malcolm Tucker is a genius character. I don’t know if that’s what my dad was like – there are similarities for sure – but I would be a fan even if there wasn’t that connection. It’s so brilliant and so funny.
“But there are moments when it’s like Armando Iannucci, the show’s creator, has been in our house. When Malcolm is back at home, it looked exactly like our house with the kitchen conservatory. Malcolm’s wearing a pair of trunks. After he left Downing Street, Dad was always in trunks, even if he wasn’t going swimming. It was as if they knew that.”
And Malcolm’s legendary foul mouth rings a bell. She added: “My dad swears so much, then gets angry at all of us if we swear. I always got in so much trouble for swearing.”
Politics was unavoidable for Grace growing up. And her dad’s role in the Iraq war has followed her through adult life. She avoids some social media. She said: “I don’t tweet, that’s where it all happens – people say, ‘Shut up, your dad’s a war criminal.’”
TikTok, she reckoned, would be a safer space. But she was wrong. She said: “I thought it was a platform for people even younger than me but I get trolled so much because of my dad. It’s an insane amount.
“These days more people jump to my defence. I think it’s a bit uncouth to troll someone’s child. I was nine at the time.”
Blair’s decision to back the US’s war with Iraq divided the country in 2003. Grace said: “I remember the protesters outside the house and people really aggressively coming up to my dad and trying to hit him.”
She thinks
Malcolm, plus her father’s work on ment a l hea l th, ha s changed the way people think about h im. She sa id:
“People like hearing from my dad – a lot of people who once hated him now have respect for him. They see how vulnerable he’s been with his own mental health. He’s one of the few people in politics who really call out the bull***t on all sides.”
And her father’s honesty about his own breakdowns and depression mean Grace has no fear of talking about her own OCD and anxiety. She said: “I never felt embarrassed or weird to talk about it, I never felt it took away from me being really funny and good at comedy.”
When she was younger, Grace was not always comfortable with being Alastair Campbell’s child. “I was so much more self-conscious about it,” she said. “I used to think it defined me. Now I’ve distanced myself, I’m so proud to be his daughter.”
Alastair is a huge supporter of his daughter Grace’s stand-up comedy. He comes to her shows and co-hosted a podcast with her. It was all sweet and fatherly – until she caught him on his mobile phone at one of her gigs.
“He was texting during the show –