DAVID CAMERON has launched the General Election campaign by taking a swipe at Ed Miliband in what promises to be a highly personalised campaign.

After attending an audience with the Queen following the dissolution of the UK Parliament, the Prime Minister said Britain faced a "stark choice" and then name-checked his Labour opponent a number of times.

"The next Prime Minister walking through that door will be me or Ed Miliband," he declared from the steps of 10 Downing Street.

Firing the starting pistol on what promises to be an unpredictable five weeks, Mr Cameron said the choice was between a growing economy, creating jobs and improving the NHS with the Tories or the "economic chaos" of the Labour leader. He said a Miliband government would result in tax hikes of more than £3,000 for every working family, as well as rising debt and lost jobs.

He said: "Ed Miliband pays lip service to [helping] working people while planning to hike taxes and increase debt. After five years of effort and sacrifice, Britain is on the right track. This election is about moving forward and as Prime Minister here at No 10 Downing Street, that is what I will deliver."

Mr Miliband accused the Conservatives of preparing to run a very negative campaign targeting him personally. "David Cameron is in a very defensive, flustered, negative frame of mind," said Mr Miliband. "He's going to throw lots of stuff at me in this campaign but that means he's worried he might lose his job but I'm going to stay focused on the British people."

Mr Cameron's use of Downing Street to launch the Tory election campaign came in for sharp criticism from Baroness Boothroyd, the former Commons Speaker, who said she was "dismayed by his decision to break with long-established tradition" to use No 10 for electoral purposes, conferring an "unfair advantage" on the governing party.

As party leaders north and south of the Border took to the campaign trail, the economy took centre stage.

Mr Cameron claimed if Labour won they would need to hike average taxes for working families by more than £3,000 to fund its plans to reduce the deficit, which stands at £15 billion, through taxation.

Chris Leslie, Labour's Treasury spokesman, hit back, describing the PM's claim as totally false, though he did not explain what level of tax increases Labour envisaged, beyond saying: "We will cut the deficit every year and balance the books in a fairer way."

The respected independent think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said it was unhelpful of Mr Cameron to refer to a cumulative four-year total of tax rises under Labour and not sensible to divide the total purported tax increase only between working households.