Divided at a time of crisis

The leaked personal papers belonging to Mr Balls merely confirm what was Whitehall’s worst-kept secret for a decade – that Messrs Brown and Blair spent their time in power at each other’s throats.

For Mr Balls to have played a key role in the Brownite effort to force Mr Blair to stand down towards the end of his tenure should come as a shock to no-one.

The Morley MP was Mr Brown’s closest ally and confidante throughout his years at the top of Government, and certainly never shied away from doing his dirty work.

His reputation in some parts of Whitehall as a bully and a bruiser lingers to this day – though Mr Balls, of course, still insists the very idea is “balderdash”.

What is more surprising to learn, however, even for the most cynical of political observers, is the timing of this clandestine Brownite campaign – the launch of the so-called “Project Volvo”.

This was July 19, 2005. Just 12 days earlier, London had suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history, when four young British men killed 52 people and injured 700 more with bombs on the transport network. Just two days later, four more homegrown terrorists would attempt a near-identical attack, with thankfully less murderous results.

How depressing that the second-most powerful man in British politics and his closest aide should be spending their time plotting against their own leader at such a moment, rather than focusing on the Government’s most important duty of all – the security of its people.

Indeed, the question of just how distracted the Chancellor became with his personal quest for power during those final years before he became Prime Minister may be the most pertinent question to come from this whole affair.

Not far from Millbank at that time, over in the City, Britain’s bankers were busy parcelling up dodgy debts and selling them on around the financial world, casually storing up a catastrophe for the future unencumbered by any word of restraint from the Treasury.

The charge that the Iron Chancellor was not paying attention at the most important point of his tenure may just prove to be the most damaging of all.