Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, backed away from his proposal for a financial transactions tax on Sunday after widespread criticism of his plan, set out in a weekend speech to G20 finance ministers in Scotland. The US led a backlash against the “Tobin tax” on financial transactions after Brown surprised the G20 ministers with his proposal. UK officials insisted Brown was not abandoning the idea of agreeing a mechanism to make the banks bear more costs of future bail-outs. More analysis of the G20 meeting here.