Chancellor accuses PM's team of 'unleashing hell'

Gordon Brown made Alistair Darling Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2007

They live next to each other and they've been friends for 20 years.

Now the Chancellor Alistair Darling has lifted the lid on how difficult things have been in the past between him and Gordon Brown.

He said the "forces of hell" were unleashed on him by the prime minister's people.

Two years ago Alistair Darling, the man charged with saving the economy, said Britain was facing the worst crisis in 60 years.

It didn't go down well with some of his Labour colleagues.

Darling said: "The weekend after we came back and I'd done this interview, the forces of hell were unleashed."

There was a briefing against him - that means people speaking behind his back to journalists and others questioning his ability.

Days later there were rumours that he was going to be sacked.

It came from people close to the prime minister, but Gordon Brown says it was not on his orders.

"I would never instruct anybody to do anything other than support my chancellor and I think Alistair [Darling] will confirm that," he said.

At prime minister's questions in the Commons on Wednesday Mr Brown also said his chancellor had been "right" over every major economic decision he'd taken.

But Conservative leader David Cameron wasn't buying it and said the two men were "at war with each other".

This latest development is a gift to Gordon Brown's critics who are trying to weaken his image.

The row about claims that the prime minister was a bully has started to die down, but now one of his closest colleagues has thrown in a hand grenade.

Politics is tough and bad words and bad blood are par for the course but Labour doesn't want the focus on that as the election approaches.