Labour chairman Ian McCartney has hit back at briefing against him ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle this week.

The combative Scot used an interview in the Guardian on Wednesday to warn that he would not accept behind the scenes murmurings designed to undermine his position.

The on the record move was a strong rebuke to critics who have accused him of being a poor communicator ill equipped to cope with the role in the run-up to a general election.

Following Andrew Smith's resignation as pensions secretary it is the second occasion in a week where Cabinet ministers have shown themselves to be unprepared to put up with briefings suspected of coming from Downing Street.

McCartney had been widely tipped to be moved, dropped or forced to share his role with former health secretary Alan Milburn in the reshuffle.

However he shored up his position with a stinging attack on the "unacceptable briefings... on a personal basis".

"As I travel the country, one of the most common complaints of party members is that they feel their hard work on the doorstep is often undermined by ill-discipline and briefing within the Westminster village," he said.

"I'm very proud of my background and very proud of my accent, that's never been an issue. It's more an issue for the Westminster village," he added.

"When you're basically described as... the best way of paraphrasing is 'an inarticulate working-class man from Glasgow who's very liked but ain't much good', you know it's a caricature too far."

Record

The Makerfield MP also defended his record as a minister and manager of the party.

"These are all big, complex tasks. You'd never achieve them if you weren't a good communicator, and hadn't the capacity, intellectually and organisationally, to lead a team, to invoke a sense of pride in people in getting it done and achieving things," he said.

And he denied he was simply a union place-man put in the job to keep activists happy, arguing that he has "very good relations" with the CBI.

"The post of chair had never been there before. My first task was to get credibility with party members, with outside bodies, not just unions, with international organisations," he said.

"The role of party chair is now seen and accepted as a significantly important part of the political structure of the government, and the decision-making process of the government.

"I have a long-term, sustained personal relationship with a lot of key people in the party, including Tony Blair," McCartney added.

"But I also have honest, open professional relationships with them. And when I read that Tony Blair is teed off with Ian McCartney I have a little wry smile about it."

He pointed out that for five-and-a-half years of the Labour government "the speculation was 'McCartney to join Cabinet' and ever since has been 'McCartney leaving Cabinet'."

"All of us will at some stage leave government. The issue is, on the day it happens, do you leave with some dignity? That is really up to your own conduct," he said.

'Shut up'

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock also added to calls for briefings against ministers to stop.

He advised Blair to put an end to any of his staff feeding the stories to the media.

"The political writers have got their very own soap story in which the speculation about the speculation about the speculation can become the storyline," he said.

"So the first bit of advice that I would humbly offer to my friend Tony is try to ignore as much as possible that you read in the last couple of days.

"And secondly, tell your people, if they are feeding this speculation, just to shut up."