'I wanted to throw myself off a cliff': Liam Byrne reveals his torment after leaving THAT 'no money left' note at the Treasury after Labour's 2010 election defeat 

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Former Treasury minister Liam Byrne (pictured) has revealed he was ready to quit public life after his infamous note declaring there was 'no money' left was made public

Former Treasury minister Liam Byrne has revealed he was ready to quit public life after his infamous note declaring there was 'no money' left was made public when Labour left government in 2010.

His Liberal Democrat replacement as chief secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, broke with convention when he disclosed details of the letter Mr Byrne wrote as he was clearing his desk.

The 15-word note was repeatedly used against Labour as evidence that it failed to take the country's finances seriously.

Mr Byrne said he was 'kind of ready' to throw himself off a cliff amid the condemnation, although he stressed he did not seriously entertain suicide.

He told an audience at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival this week that he went to seek advice from his uncle in Dorset after the note was revealed at a time when he was struggling to deal with his father's drink-related death.

'I was ready to quit public life,' Mr Byrne said.

'I hadn't been able to save my dad from drinking and I had written this note that was now being used to hammer the Labour Party.

'So I, in my desperation, in a real moment of anguish, took myself to my uncle, who is the wisest man I know. He walked me up to the cliff at the back of his house in Dorset and I was kind of ready to throw myself off.

'I said, 'What am I supposed to do?'. And he gave me a brilliant line from Samuel Beckett: 'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better'.'

Asked if he felt ashamed, Mr Byrne said: 'Completely, because on a very personal level I thought I had failed my dad. But in my public life I've also committed this terrible mistake.'

 The said: 'Dear chief secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck!'

Mr Byrne wrote the note on April 6 2010 as the country prepared to choose a new government.

It said: 'Dear chief secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam.'

Mr Byrne has since admitted that every day he 'burnt with the shame of it'.

Writing in the Observer newspaper last year, Mr Byrne said: 'Party members ask me: what on earth were you thinking? But members of the public ask: how could you do something so crass? And so bloody offensive? 

'I've asked myself that question every day for five years and, believe me, every day I have burnt with the shame of it, nowhere more than when standing on doorsteps with good comrades, listening to voters demanding to know what I thought I was playing at. It was always excruciating.'  

The note was brandished by David Cameron as evidence of Labour's financial irresponsibility throughout the election campaign and the Prime Minister admitted on BBC Question Time that he had been carrying a copy with him everywhere he went.

David Cameron used the note to attack Labour at every opportunity on the campaign trail (above). He said on BBC Question Time that he carried a copy of the note with him everywhere

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband also ran into questions about the embarrassing letter at every turn during the campaign trail.

At one of the TV debates an audience member grilled him about it after taking exception to the then-shadow chancellor Ed Balls trying to dismiss the note as a joke.  

Mr Miliband attempted to dodge the question but it haunted him throughout the election campaign. 

Mr Byrne, who held his Hodge Hill seat in Birmingham with a massive 23,000 vote majority, acknowledged his actions had allowed the Conservatives to 'bash' Labour's economic record. 

He said: 'People's anger - and my party's anger - at me will never ever match my anger with myself or my remorse at such a crass mistake.

'I made it easy for our opponents to bash our economic record by bashing me.

'And for millions of people and businesses who have had to make such sacrifices over the last five years, there was nothing funny about the national debt when the national task of cutting it has brought them such pain in their everyday life.'