Brown plays down threat to Fred the Shred's cash
Gordon Brown did some backpedaling yesterday after his deputy suggested laws could be changed to stop Sir Fred Goodwin getting his £693,000-a-year pension.
The prime minister confirmed the goverment was looking into challenging the Royal Bank of Scotland boss's money.
He stopped short saying it would step in, as deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman did, if the man known as Fred the Shred's legal right to the money was waterlight.
'You are dealing with the law here, but I think the legal advice is that we can look very, very closely at these elements of this pension,' Mr Brown said.
On Sunday, Ms Harman suggested the pension was 'not enforceable in the court of public opinion' and alluded to the government intervention.
Meanwhile, Mr Brown will become the first European leader to visit Barack Obama in the White House today. He will press the new president to support his plan for a global response to the credit crisis ahead of next month's London G20 summit. 
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