GORDON BROWN has vowed to take all legal action necessary against Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension payout.

The Prime Minister made his threats to the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief ahead of a meeting with Labour activists in Bristol today.

Goodwin refused calls from the government to give up his £693,000 pension, despite being widely blamed for the failure of RBS, which this week posted the worst ever losses in UK banking history.

Speaking at the Greenway Community Practice surgery in Bristol, Brown described Goodwin’s pension as the ‘outstanding question’ of the current financial crisis.

He said: “The issue is that the public know that we are not only going to clean out the banking system but clean it up for the future.

“The boards have gone, the executives have left, the severance payments have been dealt with. There is the outstanding question of the pension.

“I hope that even now Sir Fred will realise that when you record the biggest losses of any company in British history, there should be some recognition of that in the pension fund.

“Of course we are considering all the legal action necessary.”

Goodwin’s pension pot doubled to £16m last October when the 50-year-old agreed to take early retirement.

This week the bank, which is now 70% state owned, announced a record loss of £24.1 billion.

Brown is expected to raise the issue again at Labour's National Policy Forum this afternoon, alongside calls for tighter regulation for the banking industry.

Earlier the Prime Minister was booed and jeered by over 100 Royal Mail protesters as he arrived for the meeting WISE Academy, in Stoke Gifford.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) organised the demonstration over government plans to partly privatise Royal Mail.

The controversial proposal to sell off 30% of the service also faces opposition from more 120 Labour MPs.

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