Documentary reveals PM-Brown 'rift'

The Channel 4 documentary The Rise And Fall Of Tony Blair, due to be broadcast on Wednesday evening, features interviews with former Cabinet ministers, Downing Street insiders and a family friend of the Prime Minister who testify to the tension between numbers 10 and 11.

Mr Blair's former director of policy Matthew Taylor told the programme that staff at 10 Downing Street felt like "children in a dysfunctional relationship", according to reports.

And family friend Barry Cox claimed that Mr Blair's wife Cherie repeatedly urged her husband to sack Mr Brown after taking "mortal offence" at his efforts to persuade the Prime Minister to resign in his favour.

The documentary will be a blow to Mr Brown, who won Mr Blair's formal endorsement as his successor when he stood unopposed for the Labour leadership last month.

Reminders of the legendary feuding between the two men will hamper Mr Brown's efforts to ensure a smooth transition to his administration on June 27.

According to Mr Cox, relations between the two men became difficult in 1994, at the time when Mr Brown stood aside to allow Mr Blair a clear run at the leadership following John Smith's death.

But he said they became "truly difficult" after the 2001 General Election, because Mr Brown considered it was now time for him to become PM.

Mr Blair's former EU adviser Stephen Wall said that there was a "constant battle" between Number 10 and the Treasury, where staff regarded contact with Downing Street as "a kiss of death for their careers".

He said that on the morning of the knife-edge vote on university tuition fees, Mr Blair was unsure whether he could get his legislation through Parliament because he did not know whether Mr Brown would instruct his supporters to back it.