Prime minister vows to stay rooted with voters

London: David Cameron has vowed to "stay in touch" with voters as he and George Osborne were condemned by a Tory backbencher for being "arrogant posh boys" who do not know the price of milk.

In his most candid remarks about his government's performance, the prime minister admitted he has had a difficult month, conceding that an "important mistake" was made during the fuel crisis.

"There isn't a day in this job that you don't learn some important lessons and you've got to make sure you stay in touch and realise that as you get on with it," Cameron told the BBC.

"One of the key things to learn is if you don't communicate what you are doing properly, then yes, you've got a problem. We need to deal with that. Sometimes we have got the action right but the message hasn't been right."

The prime minister embarked on a round of radio and television interviews on Monday as he attempted to rejuvenate the government ahead of the local elections on May 3.

A committee of MPs yesterday gave voice to criticism that Cameron leads a lackadaisical government when they blamed a lack of strategic thinking for a series of policy mistakes.

Cameron's fightback was marred when Nadine Dorries, the socially conservative Tory MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, launched a highly personal attack on him and the chancellor.

Dorries 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."

— Guardian News & Media Ltd