Blair aides wanted Brown’s spin doctor Whelan ‘out on his ear’ over briefings

Furious aides of Tony Blair wanted Chancellor Gordon Brown’s spin doctor “out on his ear” amid fears his unauthorised briefings were damaging their New Labour government.

Files released by the National Archives show how right from their early days in office, officials struggled to manage the tensions between the administration’s two most dominant figures.

The difficulties dated back to the death of John Smith in 1994 when it was Mr Blair rather than Mr Brown – the more senior of the two – who emerged as the favourite of the party modernisers to become the new leader.

After Labour swept to power in the 1997 general election, allies of the two men were soon engaged in a ferocious briefing war.

The files show how Peter (now Lord) Mandelson – who was appointed as a minister by Mr Blair to co-ordinate government activity – repeatedly complained about the activities of Charlie Whelan, Mr Brown’s ebullient press secretary.

In one letter to the prime minister, Mr Mandelson blamed Mr Whelan for planting a series of hostile stories about him, warning they were making the government “look foolish, and worse”.

Mr Mandelson wrote: “If Charlie continues to behave in this way with impunity I believe we will pay a heavy price eventually.”

It was not just ministers who struggled. In a frank note to Mr Blair, one official said Mr Brown was using his chairmanship of various cabinet committees to “bludgeon through” his own policies.

“There are no signs yet that he wants, or will try, to be a neutral or consensusbuilding committee chairman,” the official wrote.