Brown plans fightback by helping house owners

The embattled Prime Minister, reeling from Cabinet splits and dire opinion polls, begins his fightback tomorrow by personally fronting plans to help firsttime buyers and those struggling with mortgage payments.

In contrast to Alistair Darling's startling claim that economic conditions were "arguably the worst they've been in 60 years", Mr Brown will talk up Britain's chances of surviving the slowdown.

He will tell the CBI on Thursday that Britain is well placed to capitalise when the world's economy gets back on track. "In the next 20 years, the world economy will double in size and wealth and we have a great opportunity to win new business, new jobs and prosperity," he will say.

Mr Brown will promise immediate action to help those coping with the slowdown, while being careful to stress that it is global conditions that are pushing up fuel and food prices.

He will say: "Those with substantial wealth can find a way through these difficulties; our job over the coming months is to mitigate the impact on middle and lower income families, not by gimmicks but by real help founded on fairness."

A three-pronged package will see Mr Brown offer new schemes to help those getting on the housing ladder, unveil plans for a £1 billion fuel poverty scheme and highlight the £60 tax rebate due to drop into pay packets this month.

But the fallout continued from a weekend interview given by Mr Darling in which he warned of the depth of the economic slowdown and joked about fellow ministers wanting his job.

Writing in the Evening Standard, shadow chancellor George Osborne today seized on the "dysfunctional" disarray at the very top of the Government, declaring that Foreign Secretary David Miliband was plotting a "coup" and that Mr Darling had told the truth about the economy.

Tory leader David Cameron said some of our economic problems were "made right here in Britain" because of Mr Brown's failures to put aside money during the good years.

Mr Darling is set to downgrade his own growth forecasts in the pre-Budget report this autumn. He had predicted growth of 2.5 per cent next year but is likely to cut that to less than oneper cent.