A former minister with close links to Tony Blair has called for an end to the feud between the prime minister and the chancellor.

Former energy minister Brian Wilson, who is now the prime minister's special representative on trade and reconstruction, demanded a halt to the "preposterous nonsense" between them.

In an article for Tuesday's Telegraph, he warned the long-running row between the two men could result in Labour losing power to the Conservatives.

"What I am certain of is that this preposterous nonsense had better stop soon or else the crown being coveted could well turn into that of Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition. And how would history judge those who had achieved that?" he wrote.

The Scottish MP lambasted the latest outburst over Blair's decision to refuse Brown a seat on Labour's National Executive Committee.

Brown's decision to take to the TV studios and go public delivered an early coup to new Conservative leader Michael Howard.

"The Labour Party, with a House of Commons majority of 150, contrived to achieve headlines of strife and disarray the morning after the Conservative Party elected a new leader," wrote Wilson.

"On the day that we in the Labour Party should have been relentlessly reminding the country of Michael Howard's political past, we gave him not only free passage but also a script to work from."

Wilson also issued a wide-ranging attack on those surrounding both the prime minister and the chancellor.

The man who headed Labour's media rebuttal unit claimed the Tories would be the beneficiaries of any split.

The feud, which has its roots in the battle to become Labour Party leader, had now gone on long enough, he said.

"All of that, for heaven's sake, was seven years ago - so why on earth are we still plagued with the same feuds, the same tensions and the same self-indulgences?"

Wilson went on to attack the so-called "Granita pact" and claimed that both Brown and Blair could have returned Labour to government in 1997.

But he rejected the idea that the prime minister should honour a deal to stand aside irrespective of what Labour members might feel.

"The Labour Party is a reasonably democratic organisation, and it is not within the gift of any individual, or pair of individuals, however eminent, to decide what will be done about its leadership six years down the line," he said.

"It would be as irresponsible to offer the post as it would be to accept."

Labour left should also realise that there would be no change in ideology under a Brown premiership, Wilson claimed.

"The truth is that the end product - our Labour government - does not have a significant ideological split at its core," he wrote.

"It is all about personalities, ambitions and the grievances that have flowed from them at such absurd and debilitating length."