Alistair Darling memoir to reveal rifts with ‘brutal’ Gordon Brown

Former chancellor’s book reportedly charts breakdown in relationship with Brown, and accuses former PM of trying to undermine him at the Treasury Tensions at the top of government and the Bank of England during the 2008 financial crisis are to be laid bare in a forthcoming memoir by Alistair Darling, the former chancellor who served under Gordon Brown, according to the website Labour Uncut . Darling’s book charts the breakdown of his relationship with Brown and accuses the former prime minister of attempting to undermine him at the Treasury, according to the website. The book also reportedly describes the Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, as “amazingly stubborn and exasperating”. Darling, now a backbench MP, recounts how the Labour government considered sacking King in 2008, but backed down when they couldn’t find a suitable alternative. Brown’s demeanour was increasingly “brutal and volcanic”, mistrusting Darling to the extent that he repeatedly tried to place his own aides in the Treasury ministerial team to report back on what the chancellor was doing, according to the website. Darling also writes about his widely rumoured confrontation with the prime minister in 2009 when Brown tried to sack him and offer him another role in cabinet, which he refused, making clear he would rather walk out of government than do any other job. He reportedly casts Ed Balls, now shadow chancellor, as a key lieutenant of Brown running what amounted to a shadow Treasury operation within the government. Such claims would prove embarrassing for Balls, just three months after leaked internal Labour documents gave documentary proof of the roles played by Balls and Ed Miliband in the operation to unseat Tony Blair when he was prime minister. The book is due to be published next week. Alistair Darling Gordon Brown Politics past Economic policy Mervyn King Bank of England Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk

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