Frances Osborne goes to Press Commission

Amid continued Conservative fury that the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while distancing himself from the Damian McBride smear scandal, has still not apologised publicly for the offence caused, Frances Osborne, wife of the shadow chancellor George Osborne, has complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) under the accuracy code.

Mrs Osborne was one of the main targets of McBride's scurrilous plan to smear senior Conservatives: he suggested in one of his emails to the Labour blogger Derek Draper that one way to destablise the Tories in the run-up to the next general election would be to suggest that Mrs Osborne had been feeling "emotionally fragile" since last summer's controversy over her husband's meetings in Corfu with Peter Mandelson and the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Mrs Osborne's complaint is that in publishing details of McBride's emails at the weekend, the Sunday Times and the News of the World took "insufficient care" to make it clear that the rumours were totally unfounded.

The shadow chancellor's wife is reportedly "baffled" and "hurt" to have been dragged into the controversy; senior Tories are clearly furious that the wife of a shadow cabinet member should be targeted in this way.

The email scandal - for which McBride, a close political aide to Gordon Brown for many years, and known as 'McPoison' in Westminster circles, resigned on Saturday - came to light after the anti-Government blogger Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes, got hold of the secret messages sent by McBride to Draper.

The idea was that Draper, who runs the LabourList website, would start a new site called Red Rag where unfounded gossip could be planted. Other rumours suggested by McBride in his emails to Draper included fake stories about David Cameron suffering from a sexually transmitted disease and the existence - again, totally fake - of "embarrassing photos" from George Osborne's past.

On Monday, Gordon Brown called for a new code of conduct for Downing Street advisers and also wrote personal letters to each of the people mentioned in McBride's emails, expressing "deep regret". But while a Conservative spokesman said the PM had "finally recognised the gravity of what's been happening in Downing Street" other Tory sources said the letters did not go far enough because they did not include the public apology Cameron and his team have been demanding.

Meanwhile Francis Maude, the shadow Cabinet Office Minister, has written to Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service, asking him to establish whether Brown or any of his ministers were aware of McBride's emails.

"Mr McBride was hardly a peripheral figure," said Maude. "He was personally appointed by the Prime Minister and directly responsible to him."

Maude has asked O'Donnell in particular to examine the role of Tom Watson, the civil service and digital engagement minister who worked alongside McBride in Downing Street. Maude wants to know whether Watson or the PM himself had any knowledge of the proposed Red Rag website.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

Robert Colvile, the Daily Telegraph: Damian McBride and his friends made a strategic error: they embraced the politics of the playground. I don't just mean that they were immature. I mean that they believed, like a gang of nine-year-olds, that the best way to make David or Nadine unpopular was to make up a rumour that they had been kissing behind the bike sheds.

Rachel Sylvester, the Times: It's not just Mr McBride who is the problem. There is a laddish and bullying atmosphere to the cabal of advisers and MPs surrounding Mr Brown. Small talk revolves around football. Briefings take place in pubs and karaoke bars. The alleged coup against Tony Blair was planned over balti and beers. It is not surprising that Mr McBride begins his e-mail with the word "Gents" - the underlying misogyny of the rumours he was trying to spread is one of the most shocking aspects of the whole thing.

Steve Richards, the Independent: Brown is the first Prime Minister for years to have no senior journalist at his side. Wilson had Joe Haines, Thatcher had Bernard Ingham, Blair had Alastair Campbell. All of them to varying degrees understood the rhythms of news. Brown had McBride, who did not, but thought he did. Without a clear and coherent media strategy in modern politics there is no chance of success.

Andrew Neil, the Spectator: When you keep a kennel of attack dogs then I guess you can't entirely claim ignorance or absence of responsibility when one of them bites several passers by. That explains why Gordon Brown's apologetic non-apology for the attempted muck-raking of Damien McBride has failed to satisfy not just the Tories but many Labour supporters too.