British prime minister Gordon Brown said today he played no part in negative briefings about his finance minister after Alistair Darling said the "forces of hell" had been unleashed on him from Mr Brown's office.
With an election due by June and the ruling Labour Party behind the opposition Conservatives in the opinion polls, the issue of Mr Brown's style of leadership has been top of the media agenda since a Sunday newspaper published bullying allegations.
"I would never instruct anybody to do anything other than support my chancellor," Mr Brown told ITV television early today, reacting swiftly to the comments by Mr Darling.
In a Sky News television interview late yesterday, Mr Darling said aides to Mr Brown had given negative off-the-record briefings to media about him after he told a newspaper in 2008 that economic conditions in Britain were the worst in 60 years.
"I'd done this interview and the forces of hell were unleashed," Mr Darling said. "I do not know why the briefers, if you like, did what they did. One day maybe they'll explain."
He made clear he was referring to aides and said nothing to suggest that Mr Brown was personally responsible for the bad press.
The Conservatives jumped on Mr Darling's comments, saying they had "blown apart" the idea that Mr Brown ran a happy, united team.
Questions about Mr Brown's working relationships have dominated the political debate since the Observer newspaper published allegations that he had terrified staff by screaming at them and on occasion had physically intimidated them.
Asked on ITV whether he was a bully, Mr Brown said: "No." "I get angry sometimes. Doesn't everybody? I get impatient," he said, describing himself as a "hard taskmaster".
"We're a family in Downing Street," he said, referring to the prime ministerial office. "Like every family there's issues that come from time to time but we've got a great working environment and we get things done," Mr Brown said.
Mr Brown, the son of a Scottish clergyman, has often been criticised for his stiff manner, but in recent television appearances he has shown a more sensitive side. The strategy appears to be working, with Labour closing the gap with the Conservatives in the opinion polls.
Some analysts say that far from damaging Brown, the attacks on his character might help endear him to voters by showing him as a flawed human being who got stressed like anyone else.
Mr Darling's comments cast fresh light on a period of financial turmoil in 2008 often described as a moment when Mr Brown showed his quality, helping avert a global economic meltdown.
Since the bullying row erupted, Mr Brown allies have made the point that at such times the country needs a forceful leader, and in his interview Mr Brown took a similar line.
"You don't solve a world recession by being a shrinking violet," he said, chuckling, before joking that Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill had a worse temper than he did.
"Winston Churchill, when he was in the ministry of defence, battered a cabinet. You've still got the mark there. I'm not like that."
Reuters