Video: Blair casts doubt on Brown's economic strategy

The former Prime Minister's book threatened to slice open old wounds within Labour as it revealed how he predicted his successor would be a "disaster" in Number 10 and warned the party against lurching to the left – on the day party members began to vote for their new leader.

Mr Blair also revealed his regret at banning hunting – admitting he had failed to understand the countryside – and the "total miracle" that UK farming survived the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

While backing Mr Brown's interventions at the height of the banking crisis, Mr Blair said his successor then made the "error" of going down the road of deficit spending, heavy regulation and big-state government.

"In my view we should have taken a New Labour way out of the economic crisis: kept direct taxes competitive, had a gradual rise in VAT and other indirect taxes to close the deficit, and used the crisis to push further and faster on reform," he said.

He also offered some praise of Prime Minister David Cameron who he described as "clever and people-friendly".

Conservative Party chairman Sayeeda Warsi, the Dewsbury-born Peer, said: "The coalition Government is winning the argument on cutting the deficit to get the economy moving. Now even Tony Blair has backed it."

Mr Brown remained silent after yesterday's publication of the book – called A Journey

In depth: The Blair verdict on his friends and foes