London - Mr Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, launched a fierce counter-attack on the former social security minister, Mr Frank Field, who accused him of stifling radical welfare reforms.
Mr Field, in his resignation statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, accused the chancellor of holding up welfare reform. But Mr Brown, in a Daily Mail interview today, effectively accuses Mr Field of coming up with plans that would have cost the taxpayer "billions". However, Mr Brown denied suggestions that Mr Field's plans had been buried.