Brown backs down over rescue package

It seems that the prime minister has lost the battle of the Budget, as he signalled that Britain would not be announcing nor pushing for a fiscal stimulus, after the failure of a gilt auction underscored concerns about the impact of further borrowing. The rift appears to have been healed between Mr Brown who has consistently backed a global stimulus plan, and Alistair Darling and bank of England governor Mervyn King who said there wasn’t enough money for a second wave of tax cuts of public spending.