FORMER high-profile Labor MP Maxine McKew has accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard's office and her backers of an "offensive and sexist" smear campaign against her following allegations that her upcoming book on the ALP had been ghost-written by Kevin Rudd.

Ms McKew has also accused the government of leaking confidential correspondence between her and the PM as part of a slur on her professional reputation.

"The suggestions that my book, Tales From The Political Trenches, is anything but my own work, and that I have had to rely on Kevin Rudd or anyone else to write it for me, is offensive and demeaning and, dare I say, sexist," Ms McKew told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.

"I am also disturbed that confidential correspondence between myself and the PM's office - in effect, a host of questions I put to the PM for comment back in August, in the same way I put detailed questions to other members of the government - had apparently been released," she said.

Ms Gillard's office would not comment last night but sources close to her denied her office was the source involved in any leaks or "backgrounding" against the former MP for the Sydney seat of Bennelong, who beat John Howard to win it in 2007. She lost the seat in the 2010 election.

The Daily Telegraph revealed last month that Ms McKew's book, due for release within weeks, would lift the lid on Ms Gillard's involvement in a well-planned operation to remove Mr Rudd from the leadership in 2010.

The book, a personal account of Ms McKew's life in media and politics, is also believed to contain a chapter devoted to the 2010 spill, entitled Ambush, with sources intimate with the book claiming "it will be very uncomfortable for some current members of the cabinet".

But Ms McKew, a former award-winning ABC journalist, has reacted with anger at claims reported yesterday from "supporters of Ms Gillard" that her book was politically timed to destabilise the government and had been "ghost-written" by Mr Rudd.

"This suggestion is a slur on my professional reputation and brings into question the bona fides of one of Australia's top publishing companies in commissioning this work," Ms McKew said.

"I am a journalist of 30 years' standing, the winner of a Logie, a Walkley Award and Magazine Publisher Of The Year award. I have written this book as a vice-chancellor's fellow at the University of Melbourne. It is based on extensive research and hours of recorded interviews."

The claims of sexism against Ms Gillard's office come in the midst of a campaign by the PM to paint Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as sexist.

But Ms Gillard has vowed to call sexism wherever she saw it.

Mr Rudd has stepped up his public activities and has responded to threats by Gillard forces to "crush" him before the next election by saying he would not be intimidated.

But claims he was counting numbers again for a challenge have been discredited.

Originally published as 'Sexist' Labor book slur, says McKew