Parties clash over Shannon case

Mr Purnell said the Tories were creating a misleading picture

David Cameron's description of the Shannon Matthews case as a "verdict on our broken society" is misleading and dangerous, a Labour MP has said.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Tory leader said the case illustrated wider problems in society such as family breakdown and unemployment.

But Pensions Secretary James Purnell said the case hinged on personal responsibility not wider failings.

Karen Matthews was found guilty on Thursday of kidnapping her daughter.

'Damning case'

Mr Cameron wrote that the case was an example of the fracturing of society under the Labour government.

A fragmented family held together by drink, drugs and deception David Cameron on the Karen Matthews case

"The verdict last week on Karen Matthews and her vile accomplice is also a verdict on our broken society," he said.

"The details are damning.

"A fragmented family held together by drink, drugs and deception. An estate where decency fights a losing battle against degradation and despair. A community whose pillars are crime, unemployment and addiction."

Mr Cameron said this was not a "one-off story" but the latest in a succession of terrible crimes against children and teenagers.

"These children suffered at the very sharpest end of our broken society but all over the country are other young victims too.

"How can Gordon Brown argue that people who talk about a broken society are wrong?"

In the same article, Mr Cameron said reforming the welfare system to get more people off benefits and back into work was "perhaps the toughest task ahead".

'Personal responsibility'

But Mr Purnell, who will publish the government's own proposals for welfare reform this week, said it would be misleading to pin the blame for the Matthews case on anyone but the people responsible.

"I think it lets people off the hook if you say that somehow it is the responsibility of the welfare state," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

"It was her [Karen Matthews] responsibility and hers only.

"I think it is slightly insulting to the millions of people who are claiming benefits and looking to get back into work..to say that they are at risk of turning into Karen Matthews.

"So I think that there is a danger in what David Cameron is saying."

Later, Schools Secretary Ed Balls said attempts to put the many people living on estates who looked for work and volunteered in the community in the same category as Matthews were ill-informed.

"The idea that you can tar them with the Karen Matthews' brush is completely wrong," he told the BBC's Politics show.