MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Tories insist on an immediate general election

PM Gordon Brown overwhelmed by problems

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has rejected calls by Conservative leader David Cameron for an immediate General Election and warned that planned Tory spending cuts would lead to “chaos”.

As the two leaders clashed at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Mr Brown insisted that MPs needed to show some “humility” and take responsibility for cleaning up the political system in the wake of the expenses controversy.

But Mr Cameron retorted that the public would only hear the “arrogance” of an unelected Prime Minister who was not prepared to let the people decide.

In the face of repeated demands from the Tory leader for an immediate election, Mr Brown insisted that the priority had to be sorting out the allowances system while carrying the country through the recession.

He said that all-party talks on the expenses issue had made “a great deal of progress” but there was still a lot of work to do. “The House has got to have some humility about what has happened in these last few days,” he said.

“And we have got to recognise, all of us, that is on all sides of the House, that mistakes have been made by MPs in all parties, and having had the humility to recognise that we also have the duty to sort the problem out.”

However, Mr Cameron insisted that only an election could resolve the crisis in the political system which had been sparked by the disclosures over MPs' expenses.

“The best way to show some humility is to ask the people who put us here. The Prime Minister is so hopelessly out of touch. How can the answer to a crisis in a democracy be an unelected Prime Minister?” he said.

“People will just hear the arrogance of a Prime Minister who won't let the people decide.”

Mr Brown and Mr Cameron both offered brief tributes to Speaker Michael Martin who on Tuesday became the biggest scalp in the MPs' expenses controversy.