Miliband attacks Cameron's 'arrogance'

Ed Miliband has accused David Cameron of arrogance over his refusal to reconsider his programme of cuts in the light of poor growth figures.

Speaking during prime minister's questions this afternoon the Labour leader called on Cameron to "put his arrogance aside" and change tack in response to figures published yesterday that showed the economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter.

Miliband said: "What the country want to know from you, as millions of families and businesses are worried about their livelihoods, they see unemployment rising, they see inflation rising and they see growth stall, are you going to change your strategy in any way in order to get the economy moving?"

But Cameron said he would not back down from his plan to slash the deficit but cutting public spending.

"The point I would make is this: this country does have an extremely difficult economic situation, for two main reasons," he said.

"First of all, we have the biggest budget deficit in Europe and we have to get to grips with that and that is difficult.

"Second, we had the biggest banking boom and the biggest banking bust anywhere in Europe and we have to deal with that."

And the prime minister echoed the words of George Osborne who yesterday said the government would not be "blown off course" by the bad growth figures.

"The worst thing you could do would be to ditch your plans on the basis of one quarter's figures," Cameron told MPs.

But the prime minister was unlikely to have welcomed the contribution from Tory backbencher Jacob Rees Mogg, who linked Cameron's position to the Thatcher era.

To the delight of Labour MPs, Rees Mogg advised that the government should follow Margaret Thatcher's advice that "when you set an economic course you should stick to it there's no alternative".

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