IVAN LEWIS

The crime: In August last year, Lewis, then a junior health minister, wrote an article in The Sunday Times saying voters were “angry and disappointed” with the Brown administration and calling on the prime minister to introduce a supertax on the rich to protect the middle classes.

The retribution: A classic of the genre. Three weeks later Lewis is forced to apologise after the News of the World reveals that in 2007 he was reported for sending inappropriate text messages to a female civil servant. No 10 had been told about the incident at the time.

STEPHEN BYERS

The crime: In August 2006, the Blairite former transport secretary calls for Brown to scrap inheritance tax in order to show Labour is in touch with middle-class concerns.

Byers’s attack was seen as an attempt to embarrass Brown in the run-up to the party conference.

The retribution: Four months later an executive at Sky television receives a text message. “I hear that you’ve got S Byers on tmrw . . . Out of interest, who do you have on for Labour?” It was from Damian McBride.

DAVID MILIBAND

The crime: The foreign secretary implicitly criticises Brown’s leadership style in a newspaper article in July last year. It is widely seen as Miliband positioning himself for a leadership bid.

The retribution: The next day, a story in the London Evening Standard quotes a “Brown ally” who brands Miliband as “disloyal”, “self-serving” and “lacking maturity”. The New Statesman, a Labour magazine, quotes “someone who works at No 10” as saying Miliband is “too grand” to be party leader.

HARRIET HARMAN

The crime: Again last summer, the deputy Labour leader enthusiastically embraces her role of “minding the shop” while Gordon Brown is on holiday in Suffolk.

The retribution: A “spokesman for Mr Brown” moves quickly to bring Harman down a peg, telling The Daily Telegraph “the prime minister remains in charge wherever he is on holiday”. After further reports circulate that she told aides: “This is my moment”, Harman is forced to rush out a statement denying plans for a leadership bid.

STEPHEN CARTER

The crime: The experienced PR man is brought in as Brown’s head of strategy in January last year, posing a challenge to McBride’s power base.

The retribution: Stories of Carter’s political naivety are spread by “No 10 sources”. He had, it was reported, asked “Who’s JP?” (answer: John Prescott). “It was a very David Brent sort of gaffe,” a reporter was told. Carter complained to Brown about being undermined by McBride. He was soon out of No 10.

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