The former Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, last night was set on a collision course with Downing Street after apparently briefing journalists that he wanted to make a political comeback with a top job in Brussels.
The reports that Mr Mandelson hoped to clear his name so that he could become one of Britain's European commissioners drew a withering response from ministers.
Mr Mandelson, in his first public comments since his dramatic resignation from the cabinet over the so-called passport for favours affair, likened what had happened to him to a "ghastly road crash".
Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott led the backlash against his former cabinet colleague, declaring: "It is all the froth of politics. It doesn't mean a damn. It is the next steps of this government that people are concerned with, not the next steps of Peter Mandelson."
Downing Street was equally dismissive of the reports which also suggested that Mr Mandelson wanted a public acknowledgement from the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, that the Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, had been wrong to say he had been "untruthful".
"Our view is that just because stories appear in the newspapers, it doesn't mean that we have to sit down here and talk about them," a spokesman for Mr Blair said. "Peter resigned from the government for the reasons that he gave. I don't particularly intend to get into the minutiae of what appear to be unsourced stories."
Their harsh words laid bare the growing strains that Mr Mandelson's concerted media campaign to clear his name is causing with Downing Street. There was particular anger in government circles at the latest reports as they upstaged coverage of Mr Blair's keynote speech on Thursday in which he set out Labour's main themes for the general election.
Although the reports in yesterday's press were not attributed, Mr Mandelson was reported to have visited the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, two of the papers which carried the story. They followed a series of press reports attributed to Mr Mandelson's "friends" - a euphemism often used by politicians when they do not want to be quoted directly - complaining that he was forced out of office by a "kangaroo court".
Mr Prescott, in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, issued a thinly veiled warning to Mr Mandelson to stop briefing the press and to await the outcome of Sir Anthony Hammond's official inquiry.
"As I understand it, it is friends of friends. They are hardly friends of the Labour party," he said. "I think we should wait for the inquiry. That is the proper thing to do."
He also stressed that it was Mr Mandelson's own decision to resign over the account he gave of his role in the passport application by the India tycoon, Mr Srichand Hinduja. "He made the decision as to why he resigned because there was some statement that he felt was misleading," he said.
The case against Mr Mandelson centred on the claim that he misled the prime minister's press secretary, Mr Alastair Campbell, over a telephone call he was said to have made to the Home Office Minister Mr Mike O'Brien about Mr Hinduja's passport application.
The former minister has said that he did not remember it, and some recent press reports have sought to cast doubt on whether it actually took place.
Mr Mandelson used a BBC local radio interview in his Hartlepool constituency to break his public silence on his resignation. While he refused to comment in detail on what had happened, he acknowledged that his own mistakes may have contributed to his downfall. He refused to be drawn on the reports that he wanted a job as a European commissioner, describing them as "speculation", but confirmed that he would be standing again in Hartlepool at the general election.