Brown ambushed by family questions

While Tory leader David Cameron appears happy to let the public examine his private life - he recently invited a TV crew to film his young family at the breakfast table - Gordon Brown has let it be known that he will not accept any such intrusions. And this message was made abundantly clear to the producers of ITV's This Morning show on Thursday after the Prime Minister, who according to the Independent had gone onto the show to show his "human side", was ambushed with questions about his son Fraser's health.

Brown rarely discusses his family, so when presenter Fern Britton asked him how his son was – he suffers from cystic fibrosis – the PM answered uneasily: "He is doing well, and although he has got cystic fibrosis, he is really doing well and we are very hopeful... I want him to be a rugby player or a football player."

Downing Street have now accused ITV of breaking the rules by asking Brown about his son, which they claimed was strictly "off limits". Allies of the Prime Minister are also said to have resented the impression that he was using his family to soften his image and pointed out that he was uncomfortable with the line of questioning.