Gordon Brown has accused the Conservative leader of "misleading people" over the findings of a report into this year's Scottish elections.

In angry scenes in the Commons on Wednesday, the Speaker was forced to appeal for "temperate language" from the prime minister but said Brown had not been unparliamentary in his choice of words.

During Brown's weekly question session with MPs, David Cameron raised the issue of this week's report from international expert Ron Gould into May's botched Scottish Parliament and local council polls, in which thousands of votes were deemed not valid.

Cameron claimed the report found that the "Labour government put party interest before the voters' interest" and called for a "personal apology" from the prime minister.

Brown accepted that "there were decisions made about the elections that could have been better made".

But he added that the decisions "were supported by the Conservative Party".

"What the Gould report does not do is put the blame on any individual or any institution," he insisted.

Cameron came back that the report found that ministers "frequently focused on partisan political interests".

He said that then Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander, now international development secretary, should take the blame.

"How can he possibly go round the world lecturing people about the probity of their elections?" Cameron said of Alexander.

Brown said Alexander could do so because Cameron was "misleading people" about the report.

Amid Tory claims that this breached Commons etiquette, in which deliberately misleading the House is a serious charge, the Speaker intervened to call for "temperate language".

The prime minister said he would use such language by quoting from the report, which said that "party self-interest is not necessarily limited to one party" and that it is the "political system [that] must change".

Cameron said he did not know how Brown had the "gall" to accuse him of misleading MPs.

He also quoted from the report to say that there was a "notable level of party self-interest in ministerial decision-making".

The Tory leader added that the attack and the findings of the report betrayed Brown's pledge to introduce a "new type of politics".

But Brown maintained that all the decisions resulted from a "long process of consultation supported by all the parties".

SNP MP Pete Wishart accused the government of "monumental bungling" and added that it was time the "Scottish Parliament should take responsibility for Scottish elections".

He accused the current Scotland secretary Des Browne of failing to apologise for the fiasco.

Brown said "we do regret" that some people were not able to vote

Earlier Alexander issued his own apology for any mistakes he made. "I, of course, apologise for any actions or omissions on my part which contributed to the problems encountered in the Scottish elections," he said.

The prime minister's spokesman also said Brown retained full confidence in his cabinet colleague.

Later the row over Brown's language continued in the Commons, with Conservative MPs using points of order to question the Speaker's decision not to force him to withdraw the remark.

Tory chief whip Patrick McLoughlin asked whether "misleading" was now an acceptable term.

Michael Martin replied that he had checked the record of Hansard reporters and that Brown had not been unparliamentary.