Gordon Brown has denied being "pushed around" by rebellious backbenchers after he backed away from confrontation over the abolition of the 10p income tax rate.

The rebels called off their revolt after Chancellor Alistair Darling conceded to one of their key demands, announcing that compensation to those losing out from the tax change would be backdated to the start of the financial year.

Conservative leader David Cameron accused Mr Brown of a "humiliating" U-turn, telling the House of Commons that he had caved in to save himself from his first defeat as Prime Minister.

But in a series of TV interviews, Mr Brown insisted: "I don't think I've been pushed about at all. What I've done is listen and made the right long-term decision."

He stressed that the "fundamental" change of scrapping the lowest income tax band was still going ahead.

In a letter to the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Mr Darling announced that additional support will be given to an estimated 5.3 million of Britain's poorest people who will lose out from the tax change, announced by Mr Brown in his final Budget as Chancellor last year.

Losses suffered by groups such as low-paid workers without children and pensioners aged 60-64 will be offset through the winter fuel allowance system, tax credits and the minimum wage, said the Chancellor.

The rebels' leader, former minister Frank Field, immediately withdrew an amendment which had won the support of 45 Labour MPs - enough to inflict Mr Brown's first Commons defeat as Prime Minister if it had been forced to a vote next Monday.

Mr Darling's announcement came just moments before Mr Brown faced the Commons for Prime Minister's Questions, saving the PM from an expected mauling at the hands of his own backbenchers.

But he was subjected to withering scorn from Mr Cameron, who said the weekly session should be renamed "Prime Minister's U-turns".