What a day-Polls narrow,Heseltine puts the dampers on Cameron and Brown attacks civil servants

It was always going to be the big story of the morning as the new look Observer previews Andrew Rawnsley's book The End of the Party,which charts Labour's second and third terms in power.

The big revelation is that Gordon Brown's abusive behaviour and volcanic eruptions of foul temper left Downing Street staff so frightened that he received an unprecedented reprimand from the head of the civil service.

The Mail on Sunday has uncovered new evidence of Mr Brown’s extraordinary eruptions, including an incident in which he hurled a tirade of foul-mouthed abuse at Bank of England Governor Mervyn King in a stand-up row.

The Prime Minister though comes out fighting in the Indy.In an exclusive interview with the paper he says that he is frustrated with the way he is portrayed by what he sees as a "hostile" media.

"It is simply a lie to say that I've ever hit anybody in my life," Mr Brown said. "I may have done one or two good tackles at rugby, but the idea that is suggested in this so-called inside account is just ludicrous."

The question is what damage is the Rawnsley book going to do.Timed to push the relaunched Observer's sales figures up,its timing with the launch of the Labour campaign slogan will not have gone unnoticed.

The news that a

Paranoid Mr Brown grabbed an aide violently and shouted: 'They're out
to get me!' The raging PM thumped the rear of the front seat of his car so hard
that it scared the bodyguard sitting in it; while an aide sitting next to Mr
Brown thought the PM was going to smash him in the face.

is not going to go down well.

It's a shame for the party because the latest Sunday Times' poll from You Gov shows the polls narrowing.There is just a 6 per cent gap now and with Michael Heseltine's spectacular intervention in the Sunday Telegraph where he says that David Cameron will will not win a general election outright and will struggle to form a government,

His comments, at a meeting of party members in west London, reflect a growing anxiety among the leadership about the size of the task they still face to secure outright victory.

Plotting over the Rawnsley Story

The front page of the Mail on Sunday carries a report that Gordon Brown's violent outbursts have resulted in chair throwing.

Not much of a story perhaps,another example of the Mail's underhand political agenda.

However Mike Smithson points out that

last night front page figured prominently in the SkyNews review of the papers which is available online. A couple of hours later the link had been taken down.So what’s happened? Has there been a big operation to limit the damage from the story which reports that a new book by Andrew Rawnsley is going to make sensational claims that “Gordon Brown has physically attacked his staff in a series of outbursts in Downing Street - and once in America …

A programme not to miss

A must watch tonight on Channel 4 as Andrew Rawnsley presents a documentary asking where it all went wrong for Gordon Brown.

Some of the gems that are going to come out in a programme in which many of his cabinet coleagues have been interviewed include.

1.Alistair Darling realising that there was a major problem with the 10p tax move when he first became Chancellor.

2.Home Secretary Jacqui Smith telling us that once Gordonhas made up his mind it is difficult to get hime to change.

3.How his trip to Iraq during the Tory conference and the stealing of the Tories inheritence tax policy broughtmuch criticism from his colleagues.

4.A cabinet divided over the plans for a snap election