GORDON BROWN yesterday dismissed claims that he accused Tony Blair of ruining his life as “completely wrong”.

The claim is the latest story to emerge from a book by political commentator Andrew Rawnsley.

According to the book, an article by Darlington MP Alan Milburn, urging Tony Blair to stay in Downing Street, sent Gordon Brown into a “titanic fury”.

It says Mr Brown telephoned Mr Blair, while he was staying with the Queen at Balmoral, screaming: “This is factionalism! This is Trotskyism!

It’s f****** Trotskyism!”

Mr Rawnsley wrote: “The Chancellor’s fury was titanically demented even by his standards. ‘You put f****** Milburn up to it,’ Brown raged down the phone.”

He continues: “Blair was nonplussed. He had not even seen the article.

“After the call, he then read it and phoned Milburn to say it was excellent.

“They laughed about Brown’s hysterical reaction.”

The article was written after Mr Blair was forced, in September 2006, to announce that he would resign as Prime Minister within 12 months.

Mr Milburn joined forces with another former Cabinet minister, Charles Clarke, to launch what was immediately dubbed a “Stop Gordon Brown” website to debate Labour’s future.

The pair were later reconciled, the Darlington MP even praising his old rival for a “remarkable”

performance as Prime Minister in his early months – before Mr Brown’s dramatic slump in fortunes.

The extracts are from Mr Rawnsley’s book The End of the Party, which has painted a picture of a besieged and volatile Mr Brown, struggling to cope with the pressures of being Prime Minister.

The latest passages, reported yesterday, also include a claim that the then-Chancellor repeatedly shouted “you ruined my life” in the final confrontation that forced Mr Blair to agree to resign.

Yesterday, during a visit to Glasgow, Mr Brown was asked how damaging the story – and claims that he ordered aides to undermine Chancellor Alistair Darling – was for him in the run-up to a General Election.

He replied: “Given that they are both completely wrong, and that you can almost laugh them off, they are so ridiculous.”