John Prescott urged Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown but the prime minister was "scared" of his chancellor, he has claimed in his memoirs.

In the book, serialised in the Sunday Times, Mr Prescott says he also urged Mr Brown to stand down and fight Mr Blair from the backbenches.

The former deputy prime minister said Mr Blair reneged on several promises to resign in favour of Mr Brown.

But he describes Mr Brown as "annoying, bewildering and prickly".

He says Mr Brown would sulk silently in meetings so often they had to be abandoned, while on other occasions, he could “go off like a bloody volcano”.

Reconciliation meetings

Mr Prescott adds that he brokered "hundreds" of reconciliation meetings and phone calls between Mr Brown and Mr Blair.

And he claims that the then chancellor of the exchequer kept money back from Tony Blair's "pet" projects in order to give himself more money to play with once he became prime minister.

BBC political correspondent Rita Chakrabarti says the book cannot be seen entirely as an attack on Gordon Brown.

She says that while it does contain remarks Mr Brown will not be happy to hear, the claims help neither Mr Brown nor Mr Blair.

And despite his scathing commentary in the serialisation, the former deputy PM professes his admiration for both Mr Blair and Mr Brown.

Inferiority complex

Mr Prescott also reveals he was planning on resigning when news of his affair with his diary secretary broke, but was persuaded to stay on in the government by his wife, Pauline.

Other issues he covers are his shame at failing the 11-plus, his lifelong inferiority complex and “problems with the English language” and his rise from trade union firebrand to holding the post of deputy PM for 10 years.

Cherie Blair is also publishing her memoirs, in which she accuses Mr Brown of "rattling the keys" of Downing Street over her husband's head to try to force him out.

She also claims Mr Blair was prepared to stand down before the 2005 general election if only Mr Brown had been prepared to back his public service reforms.

(BBC)

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