The latest broadside against the prime minister has led to renewed speculation that friends of the chancellor are engaged in a concerted campaign to unseat Tony Blair.

The new issue of the New Statesman has portrayed the prime minister as a "psychopath" and "psychotic".

The magazine, owned by the former paymaster general and close ally of Gordon Brown, Geoffrey Robinson, makes the case for the chancellor to take over the premiership in 2005.

A Brown government would constantly ask how to reduce poverty and promote equality, it says.

It adds that the chancellor would be a bigger vote-winner than the prime minister because Mr Blair "has lost so much public trust over the Iraq war".

Another article is headlined "What is the point of Tony Blair?", while a third says: "The question of Tony Blair's sanity can no longer be avoided."

Former Cabinet minister Clare Short tells the magazine that Blair is a "media star" who "thinks in soundbites" and "uses his charm to get what he wants".