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Peter Watt, the former general secretary of the Labour party, left under a cloud over the ‘Donorgate’ scandal in 2007.

His new memoirs claim Mr Brown blew £1.2m preparing for a general election that year before pulling out at the last moment, with limousines literally ready to whisk MPs on to the campaign trail.

More damagingly, he says the prime minister had ‘no plan for what to do in government’ and that, under his leadership, Number 10 was ‘a shambles’.

Just as with the abortive putsch, you have to ask questions about Mr Watt’s motivation and timing.

He is only in a position to share such explosive revelations because of his time as general secretary – a post which is all about putting the best interests of the party first.

Even the anti-Brown camp in the Labour party will be shaking their heads at that.

But that is not to say his account isn’t interesting or true.

And the more Labour try to spin away Mr Watt’s account as the rantings of an angry sensationalist, the more it begs the question: So why did you put him in charge?