Blair attacks Brown's judgment

TONY Blair has launched a scathing attack on his successor Gordon Brown's performance as Prime Minister, it was reported last night.

In a secret memo, obtained by a Sunday newspaper, the former premier accused Brown of making a "fatal" mistake by repudiating Blair's record in Labour's first decade in power.

Blair claimed that Conservative leader David Cameron was "in trouble" before he left Downing Street last June, but that Brown's "lamentable" strategy has allowed the Tories to present themselves as the party of the future.

In trying to distance himself from the Blair era by renouncing "spin" and promising to be honest, Brown "dissed our own record" and effectively accepted Tory propaganda, warned the memo.

The emergence of the document will increase pressure on the embattled Prime Minister as he draws up a strategy to lift Labour from its lowest trough in the polls for a generation.

It comes just days after Blair protege David Miliband sparked renewed speculation about Brown's position with a newspaper article which set out a vision for Labour's future without once mentioning the Prime Minister.

A spokesman for Blair's office declined to say whether the memo was genuine, saying only: "Tony Blair continues to be 100% supportive of Gordon Brown and the Government."

Referring to himself as "TB", Brown as "GB" and New Labour as "NL", Blair argued that Brown had a choice between presenting himself as representing a break from his predecessor or saying he would build on his achievements.

And he said that Brown "junked the TB policy agenda but had nothing to put in its place".

There was never any need for him to distance himself from his predecessor over Iraq, as the war was not seen by voters as "his issue", said Blair.

And he added: "He really needed to be seen as continuing NL not ditching it. By trying to be change, he played exactly the same game the media wanted but never the game that gives us the only chance of a fourth term."

According to the newspaper, the memo was written last autumn after a conference season which saw Brown back away from a snap general election following a sudden shift in the polls in the Tories' favour.

"The real problem was not the brilliance of the Tory conference, but the hubris and vacuity of our own," said the memo. "This meant the Tories, by having something to say on policy, appeared substantial and to represent the future."

There was no indication of who the memo was originally sent to, though a watered-down version was apparently sent to Brown himself.

Meanwhile, three Labour heavyweights have issued a public vote of confidence in Gordon Brown in a bid to crush speculation of a leadership bid this autumn.

Chancellor Alistair Darling, deputy leader Harriet Harman and skills secretary John Denham all spoke out, insisting that Brown was the best person to lead the party.

Despite that, First Minister Alex Salmond will today add more pressure on the Prime Minister by insisting that there is a strong case for a windfall tax on energy companies.

He also says the Treasury should break its own rules on borrowing and go further into the red in order to help ease the pain for taxpayers.

In a warning to the Prime Minister, Salmond will say that cuts in fuel duty and reductions in heating costs are necessary to restore consumer confidence.

Salmond says that in the last downturn in the early 1990s the UK Government borrowed far more as it sought to pump up the economy. He says that Brown and Darling should now do the same.

"In moral terms, Government cannot stand aside and watch families being driven into fuel poverty," he said.

And he added: "I urge the Prime Minister to come out of his bunker and tackle the deflationary forces in the economy. Action must be taken to resurrect consumer confidence."