Only a few weeks ago, Gordon Brown was grandstanding with Barack Obama at a G20 summit, where world leaders strove to prove they were getting to grips with the global economic downturn.

But the UK prime minister has this week been knocked sideways by a scandal that has left many Britons with a bitter taste in their mouth and hit at the heart of his regime, after he was forced to dismiss one of his closest aides for allegedly planning a campaign to smear senior opposition politicians.