Hugo Young to expose New Labour rows

Gordon Brown's apparently chummy relationship with his recently installed Business Minister Lord Mandelson is to be tested by the publication of a new book by the late political writer Hugo Young (pictured).

According to the Daily Telegraph, The Hugo Young Papers: 30 years of British Politics Off The Record, which will be published on Tuesday, exposes the many rows between the Prime Minister and Mandelson, and is said to shed new light on Tony Blair's decision to run for the Labour leadership in 1994, an ever present source of anger and resentment for Brown.

The book is based on an archive of 1.5 million words amassed by Young, who, unknown to politicians, kept copious notes of his off-the-record conversations with them. A Westminster source who has seen Young's book said: "It is going to make very uncomfortable reading."

In addition to the Mandelson/Brown conflagrations, it also reveals many of the private conversations inside the cabinet about the Labour government's support ofthe American invasion of Iraq, a decision thateventually saw the resignations ofthe late Robin Cook, the former Foreign Secretary, and Overseas Development minister Clare Short.