More pressure on Brown as Prescott claims: 'I told Blair to sack him'

John Prescott urged Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown as chancellor when tensions ran high after their frequent rows, the former deputy prime minister revealed last night.

He also said Mr Blair promised to quit as Prime Minister four years before he finally handed over to Gordon Brown, but continually refused to honour his pledge.

Mr Prescott claimed Mr Brown was "unfairly treated" as his colleague reneged on a long-term agreement to stand down halfway through his second term in office, which would have meant a handover in 2003.

"I don't think there was any doubt about it; there was an agreement," Mr Prescott said in an interview with The Sunday Times. "It had to be halfway into the second period – you couldn't do a deal by saying if we win three elections you'll get the job. There was less and less trust between them."

On tensions between the two, Mr Prescott said: "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.' Tony knew that sacking Gordon would tear the party apart." Mr Prescott also urged Mr Brown to resign, if he felt so strongly he had been misled.

Mr Prescott's intervention piled pressure on Mr Brown as he sought to recover from a series of blows during his most turbulent period since taking over from Mr Blair last summer.

Stephen Byers, a Blair ally, accused Mr Brown of manipulating the tax system "for political advantage" and being "distant and uncaring" in another Sunday Times article. The Prime Minister could face a leadership challenge in the autumn unless he carried out a "fundamental rethink," Mr Byers said.

Cherie Blair also left Mr Brown stunned yesterday after surprise revelations about his stormy relationship with her husband.

Memories of Mr Brown's damaging feuds with Mr Blair were revived in the first extracts of Mrs Blair's book, Speaking for Myself, which began a week-long serialisation in two national newspapers. A Downing Street spokesman admitted to "bafflement" over the extracts, in which Mr Brown was accused of "rattling the keys" of No 10 over Mr Blair's head to try to force him out of office.

The fact that Mrs Blair had been working on her memoirs had been an open secret in Westminster, but publication had not been expected until later this year. The news that the book was to be serialised in The Sun and The Times provoked panic in a Labour Party struggling to recover from the recent blows, including poor local election results, and the rows over a referendum on Scottish independence, and the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

Mrs Blair suggested that relations between her husband and the Prime Minister were cordial; Mr Blair was giving advice to his successor and has told him how to win the next election – a revelation that in itself raised questions over Mr Brown's ability to do his job.

But further revelations in the book risked reopening long-running disputes over supremacy within the Labour Party.

In an exhaustive account of the tensions between her husband, the then chancellor and herself, she claimed Mr Blair would have stood down in 2005 if Mr Brown had been prepared to back his public service reforms.

"The problem between me and Gordon is not anything personal," she said. "It is because I thought my husband was the best person for the job and it is a damn difficult job."

Mr Brown's efforts to dig himself out of trouble were hit by polls suggesting his personal ratings remained on the slide – and Labour was heading for defeat in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election next week.