Prime minister says remark about Ed Balls in interview with Sunday Telegraph was made 'off the cuff'

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

David Cameron has said he is "very sorry" if he offended anyone after describing being heckled by Ed Balls in the Commons as like "having someone with Tourette's sitting opposite you".

The prime minister said his jibe at the shadow chancellor, made in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, was said "off the cuff".

Disability campaigners said Cameron's remark showed a lack of understanding of the neurological condition.

"I was speaking off the cuff, and if I offended anyone of course I am very sorry about that," Cameron said on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show. "That was not my intention at all."

The lesson he had to learn, he suggested, was to "tune out" barracking from opponents during noisy debates. "It's a lesson for me that, in the Commons, I have to try to tune out the noise and try to concentrate on trying to answer the question," he said.

Balls's gestures and comments aimed at the prime minister have become a feature of the weekly question time session.

Cameron told the Telegraph: "He just annoys me. But I'm very bad, in the House of Commons, at not getting distracted, and the endless, ceaseless banter … it's like having someone with Tourette's permanently sitting opposite you."

The Labour MP Ian Lucas said it was a "very nasty and ignorant comment". Campaigners called on people to sign a petition complaining about Tourette syndrome being the butt of jokes.

The petition, set up before Cameron's comment, complains that the term Tourette is often used "humorously" to describe any apparent inability to control sounds and movements. It says that shows "a total lack of understanding of a condition which is debilitating, socially excluding and at times extremely painful".

The campaigner Nicky Clark, whose daughter has Tourette syndrome, told the BBC that Cameron's comment displayed "an utter disregard for the condition and a lack of understanding from our prime minister".