Labour has accused David Cameron of attempting to "dodge" his weekly grilling by MPs.

The party claimed the Prime Minister had consistently tried to duck out of the session, which has been compared to a bear pit.

The Opposition pointed out that the House of Commons has started its holidays on a Tuesday on a number of occasions, meaning the Conservative leader misses out on the Wednesday lunchtime scrap.

And Mr Cameron will be out of the country on Wednesday, March 14, when damning unemployment figures are released.

House of Commons statistics show Mr Cameron has so far missed only three of 57 sessions since becoming Prime Minister, and that one of the absences was due to the death of his father.

But the Prime Minister has never hidden his dislike of the weekly jousting session.

In an interview last November, when asked about the most tedious thing about being Prime Minister, he replied: "Waking up on Wednesday morning and realising it's Prime Minister's Questions."

Statistics show Gordon Brown sent a substitute to 10 of 85 PMQs held during his premiership, matching the 11.8% non-attendance record of John Major.