Ministers had to defend Gordon Brown yesterday over accusations that he was bullying, interfering and micromanaging his Cabinet.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, denied suggestions of a rift with the Prime Minister, adding that he was working very closely with Mr Brown on the Government’s European agenda and that he was proud to serve under him. He was speaking after it emerged last week that Mr Brown had made Mr Miliband change a speech on Europe, dropping pro-European passages on EU defence.

John Denham, the Skills Secretary, told Sky News: “I work with Gordon . . . I can say I have not been bullied. We work very well, we work very well with the Downing Street team.”

The story of how Mr Milband’s speech was changed emerged after passages of the speech e-mailed to media organisations differed from the version of the speech delivered in Bruges. Speaking on The World This Weekend on Radio 4, Mr Miliband emphasised that there was “full co-operation right across departments” and called recent reports “process stories”. He said: “I am proud of the work that I am doing to take forward a European agenda that is worked through very closely with other departments. I am working very closely with the Prime Minister; he and I published a pamphlet on our vision of how Europe can go forward. That is precisely the agenda that I took forward in my speech on Thursday.”

He went on: “ If you look at the substance between these drafts that are flying around what you will see is absolute coherence and absolute consistency in the Government’s vision of how we take forward our European policy.”

Mr Denham said that he was not “getting the accusations of No 10 diving in, interfering, micromanaging policy which I have to say was heard of in the past”.

In a BBC television programme broadcast last night Tony Blair admitted that when he was Prime Minister there had been “disagreements or tensions” with Mr Brown. Mr Blair acknowledged that there were “real difficulties” in the relationship, but said that there was no deal struck for him to step down. “You’re aware that other people may want to succeed you. I always used to say, ‘It’s not an ignoble ambition.’ I mean, why shouldn’t he want to be Prime Minister?”

His Government had been “infinitely stronger” as a result of Mr Brown’s work as Chancellor, the former Prime Minister said in the interview.

The Security Minister has again been criticised after claiming that Britain is better prepared to thwart terrorists than any other country. Admiral Lord West of Spithead said that there had been a “dramatic improvement” since Mr Brown took over. “I think we’re ahead of all countries on the protection front, which is great,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said his remarks were inconsistent with those of the head of MI5.

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