George Bush Senior has criticised the influence of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld over his son’s presidency in a new book.

Speaking for the first time on the subject, Bush Snr commented on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars George W. Bush entered into during his two terms.

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In interviews with his biographer for the upcoming book, Bush Snr took shots at his son’s neo-liberal right hand men, The New York Times reported.

Mr Bush said Mr Cheney had built “his own empire” and asserted too much “hard-line” influence in his handling of issues in the Middle East.

He also said Mr Rumsfeld was “an arrogant fellow” who had “served the president badly”.

It is the first time the elder Bush has spoken about his son’s powerful right hand men, and despite praising George W. Bush’s actions in general, Bush Snr said his son had given the men too much power.

The biography, Destiny and Power: The Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, by pulitzer-prize winning author Jon Meacham, will be published by Random House next week.