Will Tory attack on 'incompetent' Brown backfire?

A highly personal attack on Gordon Brown, branding him an "incompetent ditherer" and "hypocrite", is today published by the Conservatives to mark his first year in office.

The "Gordon Brown Annual Report", sanctioned by the Tory leader, David Cameron, amounts to a devastating character assassination on the Prime Minister. It claims Mr Brown is "arguably the worst Prime Minister in history" and publishes pictures of him in embarrassing situations.

Critics claimed the dossier, "Do We Want Five More Years of This?", shows the Conservatives have failed to shake off their image as the "nasty party".

The row erupted as Mr Brown tried to dismiss doubts over his future by insisting he had the "character" to make a great Prime Minister. "It is character that people look for in the end, not personality," Mr Brown said.

In a barely disguised swipe at Tony Blair, known for his ease in "working a room", the Prime Minister told a new political magazine, Total Politics: "Personality: this is where someone would walk into a room, look around and say, 'what do people want to hear and how can I express it?' That's personality. But someone who walks into a room and says this is actually where I stand, that's character."

Supporters of Mr Brown attempted to close down continued speculation of a possible leadership challenge by suggesting the Prime Minister would only fight one election before standing down. One unnamed ally told a newspaper that if Mr Brown won in 2010 he would quit to allow his successor at least a year before the following election.

The intervention was seen as a way to reassure Labour MPs unhappy at being around 20 points behind in the polls that he will allow a proper contest at an early stage in the next parliament.

The Conservatives' annual report lists chapter headings such as "Brown the failure", "Brown the incompetent" and "Brown the ditherer" before listing "a year of gaffes, tragedy and farce".

Labour's vice-chairman, Dawn Butler, said: "Whatever their politics, most people in this country know that Gordon Brown is a decent man with integrity trying to do the best for Britain in difficult times. They will be disgusted by these kinds of personal attacks on his character."

In his interview with Total Politics, conducted earlier this month, Mr Brown suggested that he was stung by criticism of his character. He said: "If you look at everyday coverage of politics it's about MPs' expenses or salaries, or some human failing."

The personal assault was reminiscent of the Conservative party's "demon eyes" campaign against Tony Blair in 1997, which portrayed the then Labour leader as Satan with glowing red eyes. The advert was pulled after complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Yet Labour has also been criticised for personal and negative campaigning – portraying William Hague in a Margaret Thatcher wig, Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin as flying pigs in 2005 and David Cameron as a cartoon chameleon in 2006.

The Prime Minister is, however, more popular around the world than many of his fellow leaders. A poll by worldpublicopinion.org for Newsweek shows that only Vladimir Putin is more trusted than Mr Brown by people across the globe.

Mr Brown will try to focus on major international issues today when he takes part in an emergency oil crisis summit in Saudi Arabia.

He will urge the Saudis to invest some of the trillions of dollars from soaring oil prices in nuclear power and renewable energy projects in the UK.

The Prime Minister will try to secure a "new deal" between oil producers and consumers in the West when he joins the meeting of energy ministers in Jeddah.

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