Downing Street aides are set to fall out over plans by Tony Blair to give his special assistant and old school "chum" Anji Hunter equal status to his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, and press secretary, Alastair Campbell after the next election.

Hunter is said to have been considering leaving Downing Street unless she was promoted.

In a new proposed role overseeing relations with the Labour Party, Hunter would be given the same executive powers over civil servants as Campbell and Powell provoking a fresh row about the role of special advisers.