Responding to a plea from the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to refocus on issues of policy rather than the gossip of the Westminster village, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, yesterday launched a blistering government fightback, insisting: "1999 will be New Labour's year of delivery."
While the embattled Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, adopted a "business as usual" approach as he smiled for photographers at the Foreign Office, the Chancellor declared that New Labour's modernising programme, based on "maximum opportunity for all" rather than the politics of personality, was the government's main concern.
Earlier, Downing Street attempted to deflect interest from the current difficulties, stressing that what was important to voters was not the future of the Chancellor's press secretary, Mr Charlie Whelan, or the break-up of Mr Cook's marriage, but education and tackling crime in inner cities.
The government had had a "difficult three weeks," but the clear message was that the Prime Minister would continue to support the Foreign Secretary. "He is a very effective Foreign Secretary. He is highly regarded abroad . . . doing a committed, professional job," a spokesman said.
In the first of several key speeches and policy statements this week intended to focus attention on target areas such as education, crime and health, Mr Brown told an audience in Edinburgh that the essence of New Labour "is and always has been about new thinking, not new branding." And dismissing persistent rumours of a rift between them, he repeatedly praised Mr Blair for his "historic" modernisation of the party.
Other speeches yesterday included an announcement by the Education Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, about numeracy teaching and a House of Commons statement from the Health Secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, on the NHS. Today the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, is to unveil new plans to "beat the burglar", and tomorrow the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Alistair Darling, will announce an employment initiative.
After his speech, Mr Brown stuck firmly to the line that New Labour had put the difficulties of the past three weeks behind it. He declined to comment on the claims made by Mr Cook's former wife, but he admitted that the former trade and industry secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, and his own press secretary, Mr Charlie Whelan, would be the first to acknowledge that the greater good of the party was paramount.
The cabinet "enforcer", Dr Jack Cunningham, conceded on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the events of the last few weeks had done some damage to the government, but the firm message from Mr Blair to his ministers was that it was time to put those difficulties aside.
"It is important that the government not only works as a team but is seen to work as a team. That is what the Prime Minister wants from his colleagues in cabinet. But in the end people have to want to be part of the team . . . and to conduct themselves properly and sensibly in the interests not just of the greater good of the government, important though that is, but of the greater good of the country," Dr Cunningham said.
The Tories, revelling in the government's difficulties, claimed that far from new initiatives this week the government was simply recycling old policies in the hope that voters and the media would concentrate on policy rather than personality.
The Conservative Party chairman, Mr Michael Ancram, did not mince his words when he called for Mr Cook's resignation, while the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Mr Francis Maude, said it was "madness" to appoint him as Foreign Secretary when he had a tendency to make "huge gaffes, and that is exacerbated every day".
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats were careful not to single out individual ministers, preferring instead to accuse the government of putting "spin before substance".