Cameron retreats from his claim that Britain has a 'broken' society

David Cameron has made a tactical retreat over his claim that Britain had a "broken society", saying instead that "parts of Britain" are broken.

The Tory leader, who has repeatedly pledged to repair Britain's "broken society", refined his statement after it came under sustained attack at last week's Labour conference. He also wanted to bridge an embarrassing divide with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, who last month described such a claim as "piffle".

Asked on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show whether society was broken, Mr Cameron replied: "Parts of our society are badly broken. If you look at the stabbings on the streets of London, the shootings that have taken place; if you look at the huge level of family breakdown we have, the level of teenage pregnancy, drug abuse. Yes, there are some parts of our society badly fractured and broken. But I'm not a pessimist."

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He said he had discussed the issue with Mr Johnson but played down any differences between them. "Boris agrees with me that it is right to talk about 'a broken society' and there are parts of our society badly broken and we have to mend them," he said.

Mr Cameron denied changing his tune, insisting: "I've always said the same thing, which is that parts of our society are badly broken."

However, Tory sources confirmed that Mr Cameron wanted to "get on the same page" as the London Mayor to head off media claims that the two men were divided. One frontbencher said: "There was also a bit of concern that we came over as a bit negative about the country's prospects. You have got to be upbeat. There was no great divide. Perhaps we had slightly overdone the 'broken' label."

Last month, Mr Johnson cited the performance of Britain's athletes at the Beijing Olympics as proof of society's health. He said: "If you believe the politicians, we have a broken society, in which the courage and morals of young people have been sapped by welfarism and political correctness.

"And if you look at what is happening at the Beijing Olympics, you can see what piffle that is. Do not adjust your set: that really is a collection of smiling, well-balanced young British people, giving pleasingly self-deprecating accounts of how they have managed to haul in medal after medal after medal."