Gordon Brown’s leadership skills are under even more pressure today, as the new unemployment figures were made official yesterday. The figures saw the highest increase in February since records began in 1971. 138,400 people lost their jobs in February, taking the total number of people out of work to 2.03 million people.

Gordon Brown clashed with the opposition leader, David Cameron, in a bitter exchange during prime minister’s questions at the Commons. Brown said that any person losing his or her job was ‘a matter of personal regret for him and the whole government’. He continued to make assurances that the Labour government would help the unemployed during this difficult time. David Cameron repeated his call for the prime minister to issue an apology over the economic state of the nation, for steering the UK into the deepest recession for decades and for letting the number of jobless people jump. ‘This government has announced the biggest rise in the dole queue since records began. That is a rise faster than under any Conservative government or any Labour government. You’ve led us to this point without the hint of an apology and the British people will never forget it.’

Mr. Cameron has found an unlikely allay; Ken Livingstone. In an interview with Total Politics magazine, due to be published on Friday, the former Mayor of London launches an attack on the prime minister, saying that ‘Labour will lose voters if Brown stays as prime minister.’