Brown battles for moral high ground

Rowan Williams landed the first blow, likening Gordon Brown's fiscal stimulus package to an "addict returning to the drug" and suggesting the credit crunch was a welcome "reality check".

But the PM hit back, reminding the head of the Church of England in a pointed public rebuke of the biblical stricture not to "walk by on the other side" when people were suffering.

The high-profile spat took place against the backdrop of a slew of gloomy economic news including record borrowing figures, soaring repossession projections and a further plummeting pound.

Dr Williams, who admitted he was "suicidally silly" to engage in economic debate but felt a moral need, used an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to launch his outspoken assault.

He expressed concerns over the Prime Minister's strategy, which included cutting VAT to get the public spending again, saying: "It seems a little bit like the addict returning to the drug.

"When the bible uses the word 'repentance', it doesn't just mean beating your breast, it means getting a new perspective, and that is perhaps what we are shrinking away from," he said.

The PM's spokesman tried to play down the comments, saying simply that the cleric "chooses his own words".

But confronted with the comments at a Downing Street press conference, Mr Brown did not hold back in his response. As the son of a church minister, he said, he always listened "very carefully to what the Archbishop of Canterbury and other members of the clergy say".

"I support what he says about a strong civil society and the need for responsibility and the need to act against irresponsible behaviour when it appears in the banking and financial systems as it has in recent times," he said. "But I think the Archbishop would also agree with me that every time someone becomes unemployed or loses their home or a small business fails it is our duty to act and we should not walk by on the other side when people are facing problems."