London, Apr 12 : One of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's closest lieutenant has been forced to resign for sending "inappropriate and juvenile" emails about David Cameron and his team using a Number 10 account.

The private missives, written by special adviser Damian McBride, are said to feature ideas for potential smear stories about private lives of senior Conservative Party leaders. They were apparently sent to Derek Draper, who runs a Labour-supporting political blog

McBride quit his post after landing the Government in a row after high-level calls for him to be sacked, The Telegraph reported.

Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke said that McBride had brought shame on the Labour Party by planning a smear campaign against Cameron.

Downing Street issued a statement saying that McBride had resigned. A spokesman said it was Brown's view that there was "no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind".

McBride had earlier apologised for the "juvenile and inappropriate" comments, and insisted that no one else at No. 10 had been involved. But the row showed little signs of abating as details emerged of the emails' contents.

The emails contained a number of innuendo-laden suggestions about the personal lives of Tory MPs including Cameron and George Osborne, the shadow chancellor.

Paul Staines, a Tory blogger who runs an Internet site called Guido Fawkes, obtained the emails. They were offered to newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, which declined to buy them. However, several other newspapers were preparing to publish the material.

McBride had been in charge of strategic planning at No 10 since last October, when he was moved from his position as Brown's spokesman. (ANI)