Alistair Darling: brutal Gordon Brown used aides to undermine me as chancellor - Telegraph.co.uk

Mr Darling details how the relationship between the two men began to deteriorate after an interview in summer 2008 in which he said the economic downturn would be the "worst for 60 years". He says "Gordon's attack dogs" "unleashed the forces of hell" in its wake. "This is how Gordon has operated through his political career; he makes the bullets, others fire them."

He also confirmed that Mr Brown had tried to sack him in a reshuffle in 2009, at which Mr Darling threatened to resign. He is understood to conclude that he still has a "residual loyalty" to Mr Brown and therefore did not join plots to oust him.

In the book, for which he got a £75,000 advance, Mr Darling says the government came close to not renewing Mervyn King's contract in 2008. He says the relationship between Mr King and Adair Turner, head of the Financial Services Authority, was "prickly and strained".

Mr Darling, who is still an MP, is thought to be sceptical of the economic policies adopted by Labour since Mr Balls became shadow chancellor.

Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Party chairman, said the memoirs cast doubt over Mr Balls's "suitability" for office.

"Ed Balls recently claimed that he 'did his politics on the record', but he has already been shown to have been at the heart of the plot to oust Tony Blair," she said. "Now Alistair Darling accuses him of running a shadow Treasury operation within his own government."