David Cameron: Brown's 'almost kissing Darling'

12 April 2012

Gordon Brown staged a show of unity with Alistair Darling today amid Tory claims he was "at war" with the Chancellor ahead of the crucial pre-election Budget.

The Prime Minister laughed and joked with Mr Darling during his weekly ­Commons question time, prompting David Cameron to taunt: "Any closer, they'll start kissing."

But it emerged that Mr Brown and Mr Darling met early today to smooth over the furore caused by the Chancellor claiming on TV last night that No 10 had unleashed "the forces of hell" against him.

His comment backed up claims that two of Mr Brown's close allies, former spin doctors Damian McBride and Charlie Whelan, had bad-mouthed Mr Darling for giving a 2008 interview admitting the economic crisis would be the worst for 60 years.

Before meeting Mr Darling, the Premier dashed to GMTV to state publicly he was not behind the attacks. "I would never instruct anybody to do anything other than support my Chancellor," he said. He did not deny negative briefings took place, but said: "I was never part of anything to do with this."

The bizarre comments threw an unwelcome spotlight onto tensions between No 10 and the Treasury before next month's Budget, which will set the tone for the general election. No 10 is concerned that Mr Darling may be talked into austere measures rather than an election-winning package.

Some thought Mr Darling's "forces of hell" revelation may be his way of warning No 10 to keep off his turf. His aides made clear that his comments were not premeditated, but there was no attempt to withdraw them.

In the Commons, Tory leader Mr Cameron said "the Prime Minister and Chancellor are at war with each other".

There have been signs of discord over the scope for election sweeteners in the Budget, the date of which will be announced next week, probably mid to late March.

Allies of Mr Darling were irritated when Mr Brown told the Financial Times recently that spending might increase in some areas if debt interest and ­benefit spending were lower than expected.

In a swift rebuff, Mr Darling declared he would "go further" in slashing the £178 billion public deficit if possible.

But allies on both sides insist the pair are working well together and Mr Brown emphasised their long friendship in this morning's GMTV interview.

"Alistair has been a friend of mine for 20 years, we have worked together, our families know each other. We have worked together all this time and have huge mutual respect," he said.

In the Sky interview last night, Mr Darling recalled: "I'd done this interview and the forces of hell were unleashed." Asked if No 10 was responsible, he replied: "Not just them, the Tories as well."

A book by Andrew Rawnsley claims that Mr McBride and Mr Whelan mounted a smear campaign against Mr Darling.

Both Mr McBride and Mr Whelan denied they had briefed against Mr Darling. Mr McBride said: "The idea of Gordon instructing us to brief against Alistair Darling is totally wrong. The idea of me briefing against Alistair Darling is totally wrong."

He added: "The Sunday papers were ringing up and asking us if we were angry with the Chancellor and the answer was no."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT