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PMQs clash over employment

PMQs clash over employment
David Cameron and Ed Miliband clashed bitterly over employment rights and the economy today.

In a bad-tempered PMQs, the Prime Minister was also forced to apologise for calling Ed Balls a "muttering idiot" for his constant heckling.

Mr Miliband said the controversial Beecroft Report's proposal that the law should be changed to allow employers to fire people at will showed that "the nasty party is back".

But Mr Cameron told the Labour leader: “He must be worried about being fired at will for incompetence."

Report author Adrian Beecroft has called Vince Cable a "socialist" who "appears to do very little to support business". Mr Beecroft hit back at Dr Cable after the Business Secretary dismissed his plans to make it easier for employers to fire people as "bonkers".

Asked about the report's 'fire at will' proposal today, a Number 10 Spokesman said: "We will make judgements on the correct policies, based on the evidence."

Also at PMQs, the chamber livened up when the Prime Minister took aim at Mr Balls.

Attacking Labour's economic record, Mr Cameron said the country wouldn't have low interest rates "if we'd listened to the muttering idiot sitting opposite me... who's so overexcited he might suffer a relapse".

The Speaker ordered the Prime Minster to withdraw word "idiot".

"Of course, of course I will replace it with the man who left us this enormous deficit and this financial crisis," said Mr Cameron.

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