Business secretary says it is ‘absolutely ridiculous’ to suggest Brown has a problem with pill use, and criticises Andrew Marr for asking the PM about the rumours

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Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show yesterday.

Lord Mandelson today criticised "extreme rightwing figures" for circulating rumours on the internet which led to Gordon Brown being asked on the BBC whether he had been prescribed medication to help him cope with the pressures of his job.

The question has sparked fury among delegates at Labour’s conference in Brighton, with former minister Caroline Flint this morning branding it "despicable".

Mandelson said it was "absolutely ridiculous" to suggest the PM had a problem with pill use, and blamed politically motivated bloggers for raising the possibility.

"We have seen out there on the internet, the blogosphere, all these extreme rightwing people trying to put these smears and rumours about, all completely groundless," he said in an interview on GMTV.

"People will now know that he has had a rough time and battled to save the sight in one eye and lost it in the other as a result of the rugby accident.

"But to jump from that to say that he has got some sort of dependency or addiction is absolutely ridiculous. Frankly, the only surprising thing about all this is that the BBC of all people should choose to give it credibility."

The row broke out after Andrew Marr, the presenter of the BBC’s Sunday morning political discussion show, asked the prime minister about rumours that he has been prescribed painkillers. The rumours have so far been reported mainly on rightwing websites.

In the second of his conference interviews with the main party leaders, broadcast live from Brighton, Marr asked Brown whether he was using "prescription painkillers and pills".

The prime minister immediately dismissed the question. "No. I think this is the sort of questioning that is," the prime minister said as he was interrupted by Marr, who described it as a "fair question".

Brown then gave a detailed description of his well known difficulties with his eyesight. He lost the sight of one eye after a teenage rugby accident and has a retinal detachment in his other eye, leaving him with the "same fear" that he will completely lose his sight.

Marr again demanded a response to his original question. "What about my other question?" he said. Brown replied: "I answered your other question," as he spoke again about his eyesight.

The strong questioning by Marr infuriated Downing Street because the rumours about Brown’s health have been categorically denied by No 10 in recent weeks to media organisations including the BBC.

The claims have mainly been reported by Paul Staines, the man behind the Guido Fawkes website, who uncovered damaging emails which led to the downfall of the senior Brown aide, Damian McBride. Guido Fawkes congratulated the BBC with the words "Bravo Marr".

Last night Mandelson told the Progress rally at the Labour conference that the questions had been unacceptable. The business secretary said Marr’s question had been "based on what, incidentally? I haven’t the foggiest, and I wonder if Andrew did either".

Mandelson added: "Of course every day we will face attempts in the press to write Labour off. It would be nice to wave a magic wand and turn them into something else. But I have been battling this since 1985. Believe me it is not going to happen. So we will just have to demand as best we can equal time and equal scrutiny."

Labour lodged an informal complaint with the BBC. The party is deciding whether to make a formal complaint.

A senior Labour source said: "There is irritation that a question based on a smear by a rightwing blogger, which has been repeatedly and categorically denied as untrue, was asked of the prime minister. Talking about his personal health is at best baffling and at worst quite dreadful. It was put to us and denied."

Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications, criticised the BBC. Highlighting the recent warning from John Cleese about the "vulgarisation of the BBC", Campbell wrote on his blog: "It was sad to see Marr, perhaps with an eye to a few Monday morning cuttings, feel that he had to raise blogosphere rumours about Gordon going blind, or being on heavy medication of some sort.

"I know it will give him the passing satisfaction of pats on the back from journos … But it was low stuff. I’m sure Andrew would agree that everyone has certain areas of their life that they’d prefer not to be asked about live on TV."

Last week Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, called for more Conservative supporters to be employed by the BBC, citing Marr’s admission that the corporation has an "innate liberal bias". Marr insists he has voted for several different parties but he has long been regarded with suspicion by elements on the right.

The row with the BBC overshadowed Brown’s attempts to launch a fightback at the last Labour conference before the election, which saw him declare: "I do not roll over." In a markedly different tone to the chancellor, Alistair Darling, who told the Observer that Labour appeared not to have "fire in our bellies", Brown pledged to lead the party in "the fight of our lives".

The prime minister told Marr: "I have spent night after day persuading my colleagues around the world of the action that is necessary. We are now coming out of the recession as a result of the actions that we have taken. I have no doubt that what I am doing is the right thing to take us through all this.

"A setback can either be a challenge which means it is an opportunity to do something better, or you can roll over. I do not roll over. A setback for me is a challenge, an opportunity to learn, of course, if you have made mistakes, and to do things better. That is what it’s all about.

"I don’t have doubts, because I have started doing something very difficult. I have started trying, in the interests of British jobs and British people … to make the world economy work for people."