A former economic adviser to Tony Blair appears set on a collision with No 10 and Gordon Brown after his publishers insisted they will press ahead with his new book detailing clashes between the prime minister and the chancellor.
Yesterday Downing Street hastily moved to reassure Mr Brown that No 10 had no prior knowledge of Derek Scott's book and had not cooperated with it. In a rare attack on a former adviser, Mr Blair's spokeswoman said yesterday that the book was designed to "cause trouble and sow division, as well as to make money". She admitted some people wanted to stir things up.
Mr Scott's publishers, IB Tauris, said yesterday that they would not allow the cabinet secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull, to undertake a "wholesale evisceration" of the memoirs. Sir Andrew is said to be asking for large chunks of the already typeset book to be removed. As a special adviser, Mr Scott's employment contract made it clear he was under a duty of confidentiality to the crown through the civil service code.
In an astonishing statement at the weekend, the chancellor's spokesman responded to the news of the book by saying: "This deliberate peddling of lies and distortions about Europe, tax and public spending and management of public finances is deliberately designed and orchestrated to put the Treasury in a bad light and will not be tolerated."
The Treasury did little to disguise its view that some figures close to Mr Blair were regularly briefing against the chancellor. He was angered recently, but bit his lip when the prime minister's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, was quoted as saying Mr Brown's leadership ambitions amounted to a Shakespearean tragedy.
The book claims the two men have regular shouting matches, and the Treasury regularly leaves No 10 in the dark ahead of budgets and spending reviews. Although similar claims have been made in the past from people close to the prime minister, details of specific incidents from such a well-placed Downing Street figure will leave Mr Blair incandescent at a time when he is trying to smooth relations with Mr Brown.
But the growth in the memoirs industry, and the speed with which they are produced, has seen the duty of confidentiality repeatedly breached. Recent memoirs such as the diaries of the former foreign secretary, Robin Cook, were seen by the head of the civil service, but the Cabinet Office refused to say if revelatory articles by Martin Sixsmith, the former director of communications at the Department of Transport, were cleared in advance.
Mr Scott was Mr Blair's part-time economic adviser for six years before he left to work as an adviser to KPMG in December. Since then he has already spoken out twice - to claim taxes will have to rise at some point due to the Treasury's high public spending, and to criticise the draft European constitution. Mr Scott questioned Mr Blair's judgment in refusing for so long to back a referendum.
