Reid clashes with Paxman

John Reid has been involved in an astonishing row with Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman.

The hot-headed Health Secretary accused the BBC anchorman of mocking his Glaswegian accent. The amazing on-screen outburst came after a short prerecorded item describing Mr Reid as Labour's "attack dog".

Mr Reid, appearing on the BBC2 programme yesterday to discuss Labour's health plans, took exception to the phrase and refused to answer any questions from Paxman until he had made clear his disgust.

Having accused Paxman of being "patronising", he then launched into a tirade about the presenter's public school and Oxbridge background.

"I have said to you before that if you have a PhD and a posh accent from a school like yours, you are regarded as a sophisticate," Mr Reid - who has a PhD in economic history - said.

Paxman, known for his robust questioning, replied: "What on earth are you talking about? Do you want to address the question or not?" Dr Reid countered: "You called me an attack dog because I've got a Glasgow accent." Paxman replied: "It is nothing to do with having a Glasgow accent. Who's mentioned anything about a Glasgow accent, can we get onto the substance?"

To which Mr Reid replied: "Yes if you stop insulting people."

The presenter explained the "attack dog" label, saying: "I did not intend to patronise you, but you know what your reputation is in the party and that's why you are used in that way."

Mr Reid has a reputation for using colourful language to get his message across. His Newsnight outburst came hours after the Health Secretary interrupted Tony Blair at a press conference to launch a blistering tirade against Conservative leader Michael Howard.

A pugnacious Mr Reid accused Mr Howard of using NHS patients as "human shields" because he did not have the "guts" to defend his health policies.

Referring to the case of Margaret Dixon, the 69-year-old whose operation was cancelled seven times, Mr Reid said the Conservatives were using such cases to hide their "immoral and illegal" policies. And he claimed a Conservative election victory would lead to a return "not of cancelled operations but of cancelled lives".

Paxman is known as one of television's most confrontational interviewers, helping to earn that reputation with a famous grilling of Mr Howard.

In 1997 he asked the then-Home Secretary the same question 14 times.

The interrogation centred on an allegation that Mr Howard had overruled Derek Lewis, who was director general of the Prison Service, and instructed him to suspend the governor of Parkhurst prison after a mass breakout by category-A prisoners.