Labour's Ed Miliband has accused the Conservatives of "desperate smears" after being described as a backstabber by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.
Mr Fallon said Mr Miliband had "stabbed his own brother in the back" to lead Labour and was now "willing to stab the UK in the back" by doing a deal on Trident with the SNP "to become PM".
Mr Miliband said the defence secretary had demeaned himself and his office.
David Cameron said he stood behind his colleague's comments.
In other general election campaign news:
- The Conservatives' manifesto will have a commitment to build four new nuclear missile-armed submarines, Michael Fallon has said.
- Labour pledges teenagers will be guaranteed face-to-face individual careers advice if the party is in government
- SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said her party would only press for another independence referendum if something "material changed"
- A Plaid Cymru candidate at the centre of a Nazi slur row has admitted he has had a "baptism of fire"
Mr Fallon's comments came as he suggested that Labour could not be relied on to renew Trident - Britain's continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent.
The Conservatives and Labour are both committed to replacing the ageing Trident system, but the SNP - which has said it would work with Labour in order to keep the Conservatives out of government after the 7 May general election - opposes renewing Trident and calls the issue a "red line".
Mr Fallon suggested the nuclear weapons system could be at risk, if Labour won and did a "grubby deal" with the SNP "to get into Downing Street" - something denied by Labour.
Policy guide: Foreign and defence
This election issue includes foreign policy and the role of UK's defence forces at home and abroad.
In a Times article on Thursday, Mr Fallon writes: "Ed Miliband stabbed his own brother in the back to become Labour leader. Now he is willing to stab the United Kingdom in the back to become prime minister."
But the personal attack has drawn criticism. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said he was expecting to see more and more "really nasty language" between the two biggest parties "because both parties are panicking about the fact they are not going to win a majority".
Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie said on Twitter Mr Fallon's comments were "embarrassing".
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said the personal nature of the attack reminded him of the campaign run against former Labour leader Neil Kinnock in 1992.
Hitting back, Mr Miliband said: "Michael Fallon is a decent man. But today I think he has demeaned himself and he has demeaned his office. National security is too important to play politics with. "
He said Mr Cameron had "nothing positive to say about the future of the country": "He sends out his minions like Michael Fallon to engage in desperate smears. I think Conservatives today, decent Conservatives right across our country ... will say 'Come on, we're better than this kind of politics'."
Asked if had gone too far, Mr Fallon told the BBC it was an "issue of trust and of leadership" and denied the comments were a misjudgement on his part.
He said Labour's leadership election in 2010 - in which Ed and David Miliband and three other candidates ran to replace Gordon Brown as party leader - showed "just what he (Ed Miliband) would do to get into power".
Policy guide: Where the parties stand
Mr Fallon said it was "important to respect one's opponents but to challenge, in an election period, their views".
Asked if he stood by Mr Fallon's comments, Prime Minister David Cameron said "of course" and that he was "making a very important point" about the future of Trident.
But shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said the comments were the "politics of the gutter" and shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker accused the Conservatives of "resorting to the language of smear".
UKIP spokesman Patrick O'Flynn said Mr Fallon should "lay off the personal insults".
"We think it's a bit odd that Michael Fallon should be trying to link the defence of the realm to the way in which Ed Miliband became Labour Party leader," he said.
"That personal attack to me speaks of a defence secretary who's trying to distract from the fact that the Conservatives are not pledging to fully resource our armed forces, they're not meeting the Nato 2% commitment."
The Conservatives and Labour are both committed to replacing the UK's ageing fleet of Vanguard class submarines which carry Trident nuclear missiles and maintaining the continuous, at-sea deterrent - meaning there is always one nuclear-armed vessel on patrol.
Labour has suggested the possibility of reducing the number of submarines from four to three if a continuous deterrent could be maintained, although Mr Miliband said their position at the moment was to stick with four.
The Liberal Democrats favour cutting to three, saying the existing system was designed for the Cold War era.
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