Bitter Brown attacks Blair

Gordon Brown today launched a public attack on Tony Blair's decision to keep him off Labour's ruling executive committee.

In a whole series of interviews, he marched through the television studios and bluntly declared he thought the Prime Minister was wrong - baring his hurt feelings for all to see.

Asked about his bid for a seat on the National Executive Committee in the runup to the next election, Mr Brown said: "It is right. I was a member of the National Executive in 1997 and I chaired the Labour Party general election strategy committee and I was responsible for the general election campaign.

"And I thought that was a good relationship which involved the party as well as people in Parliament. In 2001, I ran the election campaign as well and I was not on the NEC. I thought the better relationship was when I was on the NEC.

"But it is not a decision for me. It's a decision for Tony Blair. It is his decision."

Mr Brown added: "You cannot say I have not got other things to do. I have plenty to do, including my responsibilities to my young child."

He confirmed that he had asked twice to join the NEC but had been rebuffed. "That's exactly the position," he said.

In distinctly cold tones he said: "It's his decision. He has made his decision. It's a matter for him."

Mr Brown also took the unusual step of revealing he is due to have dinner with Mr Blair tonight, prompting speculation that the Chancellor will lay down a demand for an immediate public declaration over whether or not he will remain in charge of Labour's next election campaign.

With aides saying Mr Brown suspected a plot to put his old foe Peter Mandelson at the head of election planning, he seemed determined to reassert his position.

Mr Brown's decision to speak so candidly about a row with the Prime Minister appeared to be a deliberate strategy to bring the issue to a stormy head.

Even before today's interviews, Mr Brown's complaints had infuriated allies of Mr Blair. One senior close adviser to the Prime Minister said of Mr Brown: "He has lost it."

By washing the Downing Street linen in public, the Chancellor may be hoping Mr Blair will be spooked into promising him control over the election to end the spat.

Mr Brown pointedly failed to deny there were rifts between him and Mr Blair, saying only that they spoke "every day" on issues they agreed upon.

The comments come after a series of bust-ups in Downing Street in the past year, including the Chancellor ruling out a referendum on joining the single currency.

At Labour's conference, he was accused of parading his leadership ambitions in a barnstorming speech designed to play to unions and the grass roots.

And this week he launched a series of attacks on the Euiropean Union constitution which No 10 had dismissed as a tidying up exercise. The Chancellor has also fought Mr Blair over policies, from foundation hospitals to identity cards.

Earlier Mr Brown spoke of the "amazing experience" of fatherhood - and learning how to change a nappy.

The famously workaholic Chancellor said he could not wait to fly home to Scotland to be reunited with new son John and wife Sarah this weekend.

But he hinted that he was not taking the lead role in changing John's nappies, saying: "Even nappy changing is not too difficult. I have done it but I am not an expert."