Today's Times reports that Gordon Brown, Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Cabinet secretary and Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of MI5, told Clare Short of a secret Anglo-American war pact on Iraq.

The former international development secretary has not revealed her sources in public, but has identified the trio in private conversations.

All three deny her claim, with the Treasury also dismissing claims of the chancellor's involvement as "complete rubbish".