Downing Street has moved to dismiss the significance of comments made by former trade secretary Peter Mandelson.

Mandelson had claimed that Tony Blair had been "outmanoeuvred" on the euro by his chancellor.

But a Number 10 spokesman denied that the Hartlepool MP still had the ear of the prime minister. "Mr Mandelson is a backbencher, no more, no less," he said.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott also asked Mandelson and allies of Gordon Brown for a "period of silence". "In plain language from me, shut up," he said.

But writing in Guardian, Mandelson keeps up his call for euro entry by 2007.

And in an interview with today's Mirror, the chancellor denies Mandelson's accusation that he is "obsessed" by politics.

"I will continue to watch football, TV programmes and everything else," he says.