Minister calls woman in bullying row 'a prat'

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said claims made by Christine Pratt of the National Bullying Helpline, about receiving complaints from inside No 10, were backfiring on her.

Mr Woolas's comments came as the Prime Minister tried to draw a line under the affair with a business-as-usual speech on education.

Mr Woolas said in a radio interview: "It's a tough business, politics. It's 18, 20 hours a day that people like the Prime Minister work." He then referred to Mrs Pratt as "this prat of a woman".

The National Bullying Helpline, based in Swindon, has been thrown into chaos after all its patrons quit in protest at Mrs Pratt going public with allegations that her helpline had received calls from No 10 staff.

Mr Brown described accounts of his behaviour in a book by journalist Andrew Rawnsley as "wrong" and said Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell had not admonished him for the way he treated staff.

Mr Brown's wife Sarah spoke out in his defence, saying he was "a strong, hard-working, decent man."

Mr Brown's close Cabinet ally, Ed Balls, MP for Normanton, said in a radio interview: "I've known Gordon Brown for 20 years and at no point has it ever occurred to me that Gordon Brown is or would ever be a bully."

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