Parliamentary watchdogs in Britain have warned the Labour ministers that they should put a leash on their spin doctors, cautioning them that Labour spin doctors should not continue acting in Government as they did in Opposition.

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd, has lashed out against Labour's spin doctors on their going to press before making policy announcements in the House. The Speaker, in an unusually frank interview to the BBC recently, said that she had to regularly urge the ministers in ``eyeball to eyeball'' confrontation to restrain their spin doctors. She has also counselled newly elected MPs to act more independently rather than ``toadies''.

Boothroyd said, ``There are far too many ofwhat I would term apparatchiks, who are working in Government departments and who have been accustomed when the party was in Opposition, to want to get maximum publicity. That was understandable. Now in Government they have to be harnessed a little more.''

The Labour Party, when in Opposition had successfully utilised the spin doctors in media management to sweep the general elections, and when the party came to power, the spin doctors had their pound of flesh, with each new minister hiring his own spin doctors on his staff to continue ``spinning spells''.

After the elections, some of the highly billed spin doctors really made it, with Peter Mandleson becoming a minister and Alistair Campbell, Press Advisor to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Similarly, other ministers followed suit bringing in spin doctors as their inner couriers.

The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, who was initially made to do with the highly competent foreign office press relations team, also roped in his own spin doctors onprescription after suffering international setbacks.This new breed, constantly on mobiles, obviously created ripples in sombre Whitehall settings, leading soon to frequent friction and bad blood.

Recently eyebrows were raised by senior colleagues of Blair on his press advisor sitting on Cabinet meetings. The spin doctors' prescription to keep Labour in the hearts of the voters has been to make ministers announce major policy decisions at press conferences, thereby, inviting the ire of Speaker as well as other Parliamentary watchdogs.

The Speaker expressed her annoyance at ministers' habit of announcing Government initiatives to the media rather than to the House. ``I'm fighting a battle there and I want to be sure that I win this battle,'' she said.