"Gordon Brown is psychologically and emotionally incapable of leadership of any kind"

That is how a Downing Street insider is quoted as describing Gordon Brown in the new book from Lance Price, Alastair Campbell's former deputy, which follows hot on the heels of the devastating tell-all memoirs of ex-Labour General Secretary, Peter Watt.

Price's book, Where Power Lies: Prime Ministers v The Media, is serialised in today's Independent, painting "a damaging portrait of the way Mr Brown runs government" and describing how the now Prime Minister has a record of "shouting at staff, jabbing an angry finger, throwing down papers, kicking the furniture":

Mr Price... quotes aides as saying that the Prime Minister's treatment of junior staff is "unforgivable". They claim Mr Brown is obsessed with controlling hour-by-hour media coverage and shows "extraordinary flashes of anger" when a news story runs out of control. Others accuse him of allowing his staff to undermine ministers, including the Chancellor Alistair Darling, by briefing against them to the media. Although Mr Brown claims others had let him down by behaving in ways he would not have condoned, one official described that as "typical self-delusion".

One staffer describes as an understatement the claim that Mr Brown has "psychological flaws", a phrase attributed to Mr Campbell but denied by him. Insiders accuse Mr Brown of being "pathetic", indulging in "self-pity" when things go wrong. Another who has witnessed his behaviour told Mr Price: "He is psychologically and emotionally incapable of leadership of any kind."

Read today's full installment here.

Jonathan Isaby