GORDON BROWN yesterday said he was sorry for the "smeargate" emails that targeted top Tories and their families.

After days of pressure from Conservatives, the Prime Minister finally spoke out and accepted "full responsibility for what happened" when his close advisor Damian McBride suggested placing internet slurs to discredit senior Opposition figures.

Mr Brown said: "I am sorry about what happened."

He added: "I take full responsibility for what happened. That's why the person who was responsible went immediately."

He went on: "I have said all along that, when I saw this first, I was horrified, I was shocked and I was very angry indeed.

"I think the most important thing we do is reassure people everything is being done to clean up politics in our country.

"I wrote to the people who were affected by it and expressed very deep regret for what happened.

"The person who was responsible went immediately and lost his job and I have ensured that there are new rules so this can't happen again.

"We have done everything in our power to deal with this."

Mr McBride quit No 10 without severance pay when it emerged he had sent emails making unfounded personal allegations about Conservatives including leader David Cameron, shadow chancellor George Osborne, his wife Frances and backbench MP Nadine Dorries.

Mr Osborne dismissed the apology as "a little late" and said Mr McBride's emails had gone beyond the "rough and tumble" expected in politics.

"It has come a little late this apology and it is a shame we had to ask for it," he said.

"Of course there is rough and tumble in politics. But this went way beyond that and was pretty personal."

He went on: "I wish this whole thing had never happened, that is a statement of the obvious. But it did and the Prime Minister has at last admitted full responsibility for it. That is fine - people will draw their own conclusions about the kind of Government he runs.

"We need to move on to the real issue which is - how are we going to clean up the centre of our Government, how are we going to make 10 Downing Street a building that we can be proud of in the future and how are we going to get Government, instead of focused on how to smear its opponents, focused on how to deal with the big issues the country faces?"

Meanwhile the Tory frontbencher arrested over Home Office leaks was told by police he faced life imprisonment.

Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green, who found out yesterday he will not face criminal charges over the leaks, said arresting officers told him at the time: "Do you realise that this offence could lead to life imprisonment?"

Mr Green was held by the Metropolitan Police for nine hours on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office, and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office".

The Director of Public Prosecutions said that the leaked information was not damaging enough for charges to be brought.