More tales of shambolic Gordon Brown

Hot on the heels of the leadership controversy that resulted in Brown making sweeping concessions to the cabinet…

• PM’s inner circle don’t like him, claims Brown’s closest aide
• No10 is ‘completely dysfunctional’ under Brown
• Brown walked out of dinner party with US politicians because they sat down without his permission

Former Labour General Secretary Peter Watt said Mr Brown was not fit to be Prime Minister, had reduced No 10 to a shambles and was derided even by some of his closest Cabinet allies.

Again no surprise, but you still can’t help wonder how the hell the Labour party managed to end up with Brown at the helm, and how he’s still there two years later?

Those described by Mr Watt occurred just two years ago.

Moreover, nearly all the leading figures named and shamed in his book, Inside Out: My Story Of Betrayal And Cowardice At The Heart Of New Labour, are still in office.

In his book, Mr Watt, who resigned as Labour general secretary in 2007, claims:

• Mr Brown’s Cabinet ally Douglas Alexander said the PM’s inner circle wanted an early Election partly because even they didn’t like him – and they feared the British public would soon form the same view.
• The day Mr Brown called off the 2007 Election, denying he had ever intended to hold one, Labour chiefs had a fleet of limousines circling Parliament Square ready to take Ministers on the campaign trail, and had 1.5million leaflets ready to be posted.
• No10 is ‘completely dysfunctional’ under Mr Brown, who runs the country ‘by making it up as he goes along’.
• Sulking Mr Brown walked out of a Downing Street dinner party with US politicians because they sat down without his permission.

Oh and I haven’t read Brown’s interview in the News of the World, but can you believe the loony fucker is invoking Nelson sodding Mandela?

In an interview in the News of the World Mr Brown also said that Nelson Mandela’s favourite poem in which the author says that his ‘head is bloody but I remain unbowed’ had inspired him.

Oh dear.

AJ

UPDATE: This:

Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary behind last week’s attempted leadership coup, is set to inflict further damage on Gordon Brown with the disclosure that the prime minister vetoed the purchase of vital military helicopters.

Leaked ministerial letters reveal how, as chancellor, Brown repeatedly prevented Hoon from ordering life-saving battlefield equipment for Afghanistan and Iraq.

…

Brown personally overturned earlier Treasury assurances that the Ministry of Defence would be free to spend extra cash on troop-carrying helicopters for Iraq and Afghanistan.

UPDATE 2: Iain Dale has much more here.

The Mail on Sunday are devoting six pages, including the front, to the Peter Watt story in tomorrow’s paper. I’ll add links when they are up on the Mail website but among the items discussed are these…

• The full story behind the election that never was
• What Douglas Alexander really thought of Gordon Brown (see the quote in blue above)
• How Harriet Harman ended up writing the election manifesto
• How Gordon Brown hung Peter Watt out to dry after the Donorgate scandal, having told him he would be taken care of
• How Labour used party members posing as members of the public in election stunts
• How Brown came to power with no plan of action
• How Gordon Brown sulked at his own dinner party

Peter Watt’s book INSIDE OUT: MY STORY OF BETRAYAL AND COWARDICE AT THE HEART OF NEW LABOUR is published by Biteback on 25 January. preorder it HERE.

UPDATE: The Mail on Sunday editorial concerns the book too, HERE. Headlined – Glowering on his throne – The Mr Toad of Number Ten.

UPDATE 10.18pm: Simon Walters front page story is now on the Mail website HERE.

UPDATE 10.20pm: The first extract of the book is HERE.