The public relations industry has warned that the Whitehall spin row is damaging the morale of civil service press teams.

Jon Aarons, president of the Institute of Public Relations, said the current 'spin doctor' debate had damaged the image of the government's press officers.

"Damage has been done to the morale of hundreds of PR professionals who work across the public services, including central government, providing their political masters with first class non-partisan communications advice," he said.

Aarons, who himself worked for the SDP and Lord Owen said it was right for ministers to have political advisors but not if they undermined the Whitehall's Government Information Service (GCIS).

"In central government it is quite proper that ministers should have available the political advice provided by special advisers - and right for them to be held accountable for it. But this should supplement rather than replace the advice of the GICS," he said.

"The GICS has put great effort into developing the professionalism and excellence of its members. It expects the highest standards of expertise and probity including compliance with the Civil Service Code."

Press officers, if IPR members, were bound by its rules and the civil service code. Special advisors were not bound by any convention he argued.

"Special advisers are political appointees and are accountable only to the politicians who recruit them," he said.