The war over the leadership of the British Labour party has flared back into life with a vengeance, as former Home Secretary Charles Clarke launched a ferocious assault on the character of Gordon Brown.
Despite appeals from several Cabinet ministers to hold his tongue after branding Mr Brown "absolutely stupid" on Friday, Mr Clarke used an interview in the Daily Telegraph to tear into the Chancellor's character.
He painted a picture of a "control-freak" Mr Brown who was unable to work with other people, lacked the courage to take tough decisions and was "deluded" about the nature of his relationship with Mr Blair. "He is totally, totally uncollegiate," said Mr Clarke. "Can he change? That's the question. Can he delegate?
Former British Home Secretary Charles Clarke
"I am told by people in his Treasury team that he has delegated and can delegate. I have not seen it myself. From my own experience of dealing with student finance and ID cards, it was very, very difficult to work with him - very difficult indeed. It was the control-freak thing. His massive weakness is that he can't work with people."
Mr Clarke said that Mr Brown was labouring under the "delusion" that he could have beaten Mr Blair for the Labour leadership if he had stood in 1994, when in fact he would have been "humiliated".
His decision to stand aside for Mr Blair then was not the only occasion on which Mr Brown had "bottled it", suggested Mr Clarke. "He's not a risk-taker, and that matters - you've got to be a risk taker in politics.
"As a Prime Minister, there are many things about which you can't be certain. The easiest thing can be not to act, but what is not understood is that not to act brings costs as well. You can't be cowed and worried. You can't have endless reviews. You have to act. The courage question is a big thing for Gordon."
Mr Clarke was previously seen as a close ally of the Prime Minister, but told the Telegraph he was "furious" to have been sacked by Mr Blair in May and denied he was "working in league with Tony Blair or Downing Street".
But a close aide of Mr Brown said he believed a concerted effort was under way to block his succession to the leadership.