DAVID Cameron's attempt to revive his Government's fortunes faltered yesterday after he was forced to deny accusations from a Tory MP he was an out-of-touch "posh boy".
The Prime Minister had insisted his ministers would do better and apologised for triggering panic at the petrol pumps.
However, Eton-educated Mr Cameron's endeavours were overshadowed by a row within his own team about the way he is doing his job.
Backbencher Nadine Dorries hit out at a "very tight, narrow clique" at the top of the Coalition Government.
She added: "I think that not only are Cameron and Osborne two posh boys who don't know the price of milk,
but they are two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition, and no passion to want to understand the lives of others – and that is their real crime."
The attack came as ministers are desperate to get back on the front foot after a torrid few weeks for the Tory-LibDem Coalition.
Polls have shown support for the Government dipping amid rows over granny, pasty and church taxes. Ministers have also faced criticism for telling motorists to stockpile fuel before a strike by tanker drivers has even been announced.
And, last night, the bad news continued as an ICM poll showed support for the Tories had slumped six points to 33%.
At the same time, backing for Labour was up four points to 41% – the party's best showing for nine years.
Mr Cameron admitted his Government had stumbled recently. He said there were problems with the Coalition's message and pledged ministers would "raise their game".
He defended himself after Mrs Dorries denounced him as a "posh boy" who did not care about those less well off than himself.
It is not the first time the Mr Cameron and Mrs Dorries have clashed. He was forced to apologise to her last year after he appeared to suggest she was "frustrated", to chortles from fellow MPs, at Prime Minister's Questions.
Last night, he attempted to bat off the criticism, saying all political leaders had "MPs who don't agree with you". He added Mrs Dorries had strong views about a number of things.
Mr Cameron also admitted there was "not a day in this job" he did not learn some lesson and apologised for the fuel strike fiasco, although he insisted people had been "very understanding" and the public blamed the unions for the crisis.
Challenged that his ministers, not trade unions, had created queues at the pumps, Mr Cameron said: "The reason why people even thought about that was because there was a strike called by the unions."
Earlier he had hit back at criticism that he spent too much time on the school run, having "date nights" with his wife Samantha and watching DVD box sets.
He said: "It has got to be possible to be a decent husband, a good father and a good Prime Minister at the same time. If that isn't possible then there's something wrong."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article