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Alistair Darling’s fate was left hanging in the balance today after Gordon Brown refused to say that he would keep him on as Chancellor.

Asked whether he would move Mr Darling from No 11 in a forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Brown stonewalled.

"Alistair Darling has been a very good Chancellor," Mr Brown said this afternoon, hours after fresh allegations about Mr Darling's expenses claims forced the Chancellor to promise to repay hundreds of pounds to the taxpayer.

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"I am not going to make any predictions about anything that is going to happen in the next week."

The Chancellor was forced back into the expenses spotlight after fresh allegations in The Daily Telegraph claimed that he had broken House of Commons rules.

Mr Darling was reported to have claimed £1,004 in service charges for his South London flat for the six months ending December 2007. The Telegraph reported, however, that in September 2007 Mr Darling moved out, let the flat and began claiming second-home expenses on his grace and favour flat at 11 Downing Street.

Mr Darling's office initially denied any wrongdoing and, speaking first thing this morning, Mr Brown appeared to back his long-time ally and friend.

"I obviously speak to Alistair about this, and he assures me that this set of allegations has no foundation in it," the Prime Minister said. "If he had done anything wrong he would be the first to admit it."

An hour later, however, Mr Darling released a statement saying that he was after all repaying some of his expenses — a move that appeared to undermine claims that he was entirely blameless.

The admission fuelled calls for him to be dismissed or demoted. It also appeared to drive a wedge between Mr Darling and Mr Brown, with the Prime Minister's official spokesman refusing later to say that Mr Brown still believed Mr Darling had done nothing wrong.

Asked if the Prime Minister was sure that Mr Darling was blameless, his spokesman said: "The Prime Minister is satisfied that Alistair Darling has repaid this money in order to ensure there’s no ambiguity about his position and he very much supports that."

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