The British government was warned not to "defend the indefensible" last night, as the row continued over its proposal to cut lone parent and disability benefit and transfer the savings to education and health.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to draw a line under speculation about his off-shore trusts Labour's Treasury Minister, Mr Geoffrey Robinson, issued a statement last night claiming he had been "entirely honest and open" about his financial affairs.
The warning on benefits came from a Labour peer, Lord Morris of Manchester, as the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, was forced to defend the government's benefits review saying: "It is the big idea and we mustn't be deflected from carrying out the reforms that are necessary to provide opportunity for people."
In an interview for GMTV's Sunday programme, Mr Blair insisted he wanted to give the disabled the chance "if they are able, to get off benefit and gain the independence that many of them actually want".
He said the row over the benefits review was simply "speculation" about leaked documents that he and government ministers had not seen yet. And pointing to £195 million the government had set aside to encourage disabled people back to work, he added: "No one's taking away benefits from those who need it."
The government's plan to cut benefits to lone parents by up to £10 a week caused dramatic scenes in the House of Commons last week. Three MPs resigned their government posts while 47 MPs defied a three-line whip and voted against the measure.
As Mr Blair reminded backbenchers that before the election Labour had pledged that "welfare reform was going to be a big part of the new Labour government", the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, weighed in, insisting: "In its present form, the welfare state is failing millions of people . . . Therefore we must rebuild it with radical reforms based on opportunity and fairness.
"For sick and disabled people we are promoting the right to work and will continue to do so while they want it," he added.
The Tory leader, Mr William Hague, insisted his party would support the government in its reform of the welfare state but would oppose the "extraordinary" idea of cutting benefits for the disabled.
"One of the purposes of reforming the welfare state is to make sure we don't end up with an excessive burden of taxation in this country. But it's also one of the purposes to make sure the money goes to the people who really need it," Mr Hague said.
As if the benefits row wasn't enough to contend with, the end of a difficult week for Labour saw Mr Robinson forced to admit that, contrary to earlier statements, he had influenced two offshore financial deals.
As the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, defended the minister, saying that the greatest charge against him was that he had "said one thing, perhaps done another", Mr Robinson dismissed allegations of a conflict of interest, saying investigations into his financial affairs had "produced nothing new of substance".
In interviews for the Observer, the Sunday Telegraph and the Express on Sunday, Mr Robinson repeated his assertion that he had done nothing wrong. However, the shadow chancellor, Mr Peter Lilley, seized on the details about the off-shore deals, claiming Mr Robinson's position was "untenable. It is time for him to go."
Mr Robinson admitted that he advised the trustees of a Guernsey-based company, Orion Trust - set up for his family by his friend, Ms Joska Bourgeois - to buy £10 million in shares from his engineering company, TransTec, to fund a takeover bid last year. Further to that deal, Mr Robinson also encouraged the trustees to buy more than 40 per cent in shares of Coventry City Football Club, of which he is chairman.
While the government has pledged to close tax loopholes, Mr Robinson said he had advised the trustees in January that if he was to become a minister in Mr Blair's government he did not want any more distributions.
As a discretionary beneficiary of the trust, he said, he did not see a "clear inconsistency" with his position as a government minister.