David Cameron faces grilling over spending cuts

David Cameron faces a grilling by panel of some of Parliament's most senior MPs today, with the impact of massive public spending cuts high on the agenda.

Police numbers, housing benefit reforms and flood defences are among controversial issues set to be raised by members of the the Commons Liaison Committee.

The marathon two-and-a-half-hour session is Mr Cameron's first in front of the group, which is made up of the 33 chairmen of the cross-party departmental select committees.

Other thorny topics in the committee's sights are university tuition fees, defence cuts and the timescale for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan.

Mr Cameron will also be pressed over his promise to lead the "greenest Government ever" amid criticism of plans to sell off state-owned forests.

The Prime Minister was forced to defend cuts to police budgets in the Commons yesterday after Greater Manchester Police said they would axe 750 civilian employees and 309 officers by 2012.

And he denied cutting funding for flood defences amid Labour claims yesterday's floods in Cornwall showed that was a "false economy".