PM kept Defence Secretary in the dark over Iraq troop reductions

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Gordon Brown discussed general defence matters with the Minister on the eve of his visit to Basra last week.

But he did not say a word about his announcement – made, significantly, in the middle of the Tory Party conference.

The snub is said by senior defence sources to have left Mr Browne so angry he went to ground for the rest of the week.

Senior defence sources confirmed Mr Browne had believed the former Chancellor – whom he served as a junior Minister at the Treasury – would make the troops announcement in the Commons tomorrow as he had originally planned.

After the Prime Minister jumped the gun, Mr Browne went AWOL and pulled out of a visit to an RAF station last Wednesday – the day after the Prime Minister's announcement – in order to avoid questions about the withdrawal.

He ordered his junior Defence Equipment Minister Lord Drayson to attend. Mr Browne had been invited to welcome six new Merlin helicopters at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

Later the same day, Mr Browne rejected an interview request from BBC2's Newsnight. Presenter Jeremy Paxman savaged his replacement, Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth, after he denied Tory allegations the PM had been guilty of 'cynical politics' by timing his remarks to coincide with the defence debate in Blackpool.

The embarrassment for Labour became more acute when it emerged the statement was a sham, because 500 of the 5,500 soldiers in Iraq had already returned to the UK and a further 500 were due home by Christmas anyway.

Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said: 'It confirms what everyone expected, that this was a No 10 publicity stunt.'

TheMoDsaid: 'The Defence Secretary talks to the PM very frequently about Iraq as well as wider defence matters – including on the eve of the visit – and was aware of the PM's intention to announce a reduction in troop levels in Iraq.'

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'We have nothing to add.'