Gordon Brown brushed aside threats to his leadership yesterday and promised an early package of help for hard-pressed families.

The Prime Minister broke a three-week silence to dismiss suggestions that he was about to be challenged for the Labour crown by David Miliband or anyone else. The public was interested in what the Government was doing to help them rather than in internal politics, he suggested.

He said that he was working closely with Mr Miliband and even suggested that the Foreign Secretary's controversial article that sparked a summer of turmoil could have been written by any member of the Cabinet - including himself.

Mr Brown spoke to reporters as he flew from London to the Olympics. Any hope he may have had of a “Beijing bounce” on the back of Britain's medal successes was dashed by the latest monthly Ipsos/MORI poll, which gave the Conservatives 48 per cent of the vote and Labour 24 per cent.

He side-stepped questions about whether he was confident that the Cabinet was behind him, insisting that he and ministers were “getting on with the job”.

He appeared to confirm suggestions that any Cabinet reshuffle has been deferred until at least October.

Mr Brown, travelling with his family to the Games, was relaxed and upbeat, predicting that despite current problems Labour would “go on and win” the next general election.

Privately, the Brown camp has no idea whether there will be a further attempt to destabilise him in the run-up to the Labour conference next month, but he contends that he is the politician best placed to take Britain through the economic pain.

He said: “We are getting on with the job. You will find that, as we get into September, what the people of Britain are concerned about is what is happening to their mortgages, their gas and electricity bills and oil prices and petrol prices at the pumps.

“They are the issues they want us to look at and address; that is what we have got to deal with. You will see us dealing with some of these issues as we come back in September.”

Mr Brown's remarks suggested that he and Alistair Darling could bring forward measures to help families hit by fuel and food prices and the slump in the mortgage market, to before the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report, which is usually issued in the late autumn.

Ministers are considering giving fuel vouchers to families on child tax credit and Mr Darling is looking at changes to stamp duty, including suspending it for a period to give a boost to the market.

It was the first time Mr Brown had commented on Mr Miliband's shock intervention after the Glasgow East by-election defeat, when his call for a renewal and change was seen as a thinly veiled leadership bid, an impression encouraged by the followers of the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Brown said his relations with Mr Miliband were fine and three times referred to him as “David” during an on-the-record press briefing.

The Prime Minister said that the article could have been written by anyone in the Cabinet; it was talking about getting on with the business of government and exposing the differences between the parties.

“These are the debates that all the members of the Cabinet have got to be involved in. There are no difficulties.”

When it was pointed out that Mr Miliband had not once mentioned him in the article he replied: “I do not mention myself in my own articles.” He added that he was working very closely with Mr Miliband on Georgia and Afghanistan.

Asked about the reshuffle, he said it was never the practice to give notice. He added that he was happy with the quality of his Cabinet team.

Mr Brown is known to want to avoid an early reshuffle but is keeping it in play in case he needs one to restore discipline in September.

The Prime Minister rejected suggestions that he had been late to become involved in the Georgia crisis, stating that on the first day he had talked to the UN Secretary-General and others. He had joined the Americans in the G7 in expressing to President Medvedev of Russia their outrage at what had happened.

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