ALISTAIR DARLING brands Britain's bankers "arrogant and stupid" while denouncing Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief, as "a pariah" in more leaks from his forthcoming memoirs, according to a Labour-supporting website.

Yesterday it was revealed that Mr Darling's new book describes former prime minister Gordon Brown "brutal and volcanic".

In Back from the Brink: 1000 days at No 11, the former Labour chancellor criticises bankers about their role in the financial crash, writing: "My worry was that they were so arrogant and stupid they might bring us all down."

According to the website Labour Uncut, he describes how Andy Hornby, former chief executive of HBOS, looked "like he was about to explode" when confronted with the magnitude of what had happened on his watch.

Mr Darling denounces Sir Fred's devil-may-care attitude as the financial storm hit, saying the RBS chief gave the impression he was "off to play a game of golf".

The Edinburgh MP also insists Sir Fred, who became the face of the banking crisis, "deserved to be a pariah" when he refused to slash his pension after being fired by the RBS board.

The Tories have already seized on what they regard as Mr Darling's "revenge memoirs" against his former Downing Street neighbour, having highlighted the assertion that Mr Brown got his supporters, most notably Ed Balls, to run a parallel Treasury operation.

Yesterday, Mr Balls, now Labour leader Ed Miliband's Shadow Chancellor, denied he plotted to oust Mr Darling but acknowledged the memoirs could be a political gift to the Tories.

The Yorkshire MP said Mr Darling did a "good job as chancellor in very difficult periods".

Responding to the suggestion that Mr Brown wanted to oust Mr Darling at No 11 and put him in charge of the Treasury in June 2009, Mr Balls said: "He never told me that was what he was doing but there's no doubt from what Alistair's saying and what everybody else has said, and the conversations that happened in that week, that it was the plan.

"I made it clear to people in government and outside that I thought it was the wrong plan.

"I thought changing the chancellor in 2009 was the wrong decision and I wanted to stay in the department as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families."

Mr Balls insisted that while the former chancellor had the right to write his memoirs the issues raised were all in the past and he wanted to concentrate on the present and the future.

He added: "I have to say that if I were George Osborne at the moment, totally on the defensive on my failing economic plans, I would think there's nothing better than a book, a memoirs, some revisiting of the past.

"The world's moved on. There's big challenges today, that's my job," he added.

Meantime, Ed Miliband refused to be drawn on Mr Darling's book, saying that while his colleague had "a perfect right to write his memoirs", he was going to concentrate on the "needs of the economy going forward".

Atlantic Books, publishers of Mr Darling's memoirs, said last night "that the reports of the book's contents do not fully and fairly represent the author's views as expressed in the book."