Prescott memoirs are new blow for Brown

By Christina Fincher

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown was dealt a further blow on Sunday when former deputy prime minister John Prescott disclosed he had urged Tony Blair to sack Brown when he was chancellor.

In memoirs serialised in the Sunday Times, Prescott described the tempestuous relationship between the two men in the years before Blair stood down last June, and said the prime minister had been scared to act against Brown.

Prescott's claims come at a difficult time for Brown, already struggling after crushing local election losses, collapsing opinion poll ratings and damaging revelations about his behaviour while serving in Blair's government.

In extracts from her memoirs on Saturday, Blair's wife Cherie accused Brown, who had long sought the prime minister's job, of "putting too much pressure on Tony to quit when Tony wasn't ready".

Prescott said he spent much of his time acting as a conciliator, with "hundreds" of phone calls and meetings dealing with "Blair-Brown issues".

Brown was "frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly", Prescott said, while Blair had reneged several times on pledges to make way for Brown as prime minister.

Prescott said he had also challenged Brown to quit as Chancellor over Blair's broken promises.

"With Tony, when he was moaning on about Gordon's behaviour, I'd say 'Sack him. Find a new chancellor if that's how you really feel'. But neither would take the final step," Prescott said.