PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on jobs and Europe

David Cameron and Ed Miliband have clashed over the latest jobs figures and Europe, during the final prime minister's question time of 2011.

Figures show the number of people out of work in the UK increased by 128,000 in the three months to October, to 2.64 million - the highest level since 1994.

Youth unemployment now stands at 1.027 million, the highest since records began in 1992, beating the previous record set only last month.

Opening with the subject on 14 December 2011, opposition leader Ed Miliband reminded MPs of Mr Cameron's New Year message in 2011 in which he said "uppermost in my mind... is jobs".

"Can he explain what's gone wrong?" he asked.

Mr Cameron said any increase in unemployment was "bad news" and "a tragedy for those involved", pledging to do "everything we can" to get people in work.

He listed a number of government policies designed to get people back into work, including the work programme, youth contract and an increase in apprenticeships.

But the Labour leader said the figures showed the government's economic strategy was "failing", arguing that private sector job creation had not made up for public sector job cuts, as the government had planned.

The prime minister said 581,000 extra private sector jobs had been created since the election - while 336,000 public sector jobs had been lost.

He said the government was taking steps to reduce unemployment but these were not supported by Labour.

Mr Miliband then turned his attention towards the coalition, reading out another extract from Mr Cameron's New Year message promising a "more collegiate approach" to government, asking what went wrong.

Mr Cameron said it would come as no surprise that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats "don't always agree about Europe".

In a David Miliband-related dig, he added: "It's not like we're brothers or anything."

The Labour leader told the PM he should re-enter European negotiations to try to get a "better deal" for Britain, to which Mr Cameron replied he would "make no apology for standing up for Britain".