Message not always right, says PM

David Cameron has acknowledged that the Government had a "problem" with getting its message across.

Fighting back amid criticism of his recent performance, the Prime Minister said the Government needed to communicate better but insisted its actions were "right".

"Sometimes we have got the action right but the message hasn't been right," he told BBC News.

Earlier Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne came under fire from Tory backbencher Nadine Dorries, who accused them of being "arrogant posh boys" with no desire to understand the lives of ordinary voters.

Challenged about Ms Dorries's comments, Mr Cameron sighed audibly before telling the BBC: "You have sometimes MPs who don't agree with you. Now, my job is to try to run the country on behalf of the people in the country. People in this country, they are struggling to meet their bills, they are having a tough time. I understand that."

He added: "The Government is having to do difficult things, I accept that. If you stand back from Nadine Dorries and all of this, like other countries we are having to cut public spending, we have had to put up some taxes, we have had to take difficult decisions. I am absolutely driven by wanting to help people who are trying to keep it together and do the right thing."

Mr Cameron added: "If you don't communicate what you are doing properly, then yes you have got a problem."

In an escalation of her earlier criticism of Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne, Ms Dorries hit out at a "very tight narrow clique" at the top of Government.

"What they do is act as a barrier and prevent Cameron and Osborne and others from actually really understanding or knowing what is happening in the rest of the country," she told BBC1's Daily Politics show. "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."

In a separate interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cameron conceded his Government must "raise our game". The Prime Minister insisted his "driving vision" remained intact and defended his own performance in Number 10, though he said ministers had to "learn lessons" about communicating with the public.

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