Mr McBride refers in the book to the “art of leaking lies”. He conceded at one point that his treatment of Mr Lewis and the woman at the centre of the allegations was “cruel” and “vindictive”. He reveals that when Mr Brown was chancellor, he would log into his emails so that he could leak details of confidential government announcements to discredit rival ministers. He claims that ministers were oblivious and were left wondering who in their department was releasing information to the media.