Furious aides of Tony Blair wanted Chancellor Gordon Brown’s spin doctor “out on his ear” amid fears his unauthorised briefings were damaging their New Labour government, according to newly released official papers.
Files released by the National Archives show how right from their early days in office, officials struggled to manage the tensions between the administration’s two most dominant figures.
The difficulties dated back to the death of John Smith in 1994 when it was Mr Blair rather than Mr Brown – his more senior colleague – who emerged as the favourite of the party modernisers to become the new leader.