David Cameron calls Ed Balls a 'maso-sadist' in run-up to Chancellor's budget speech

The Prime Minister may have mangled his words

In the run-up to the Chancellor’s pre-autumn statement, the Prime Minister appeared to be a little confused about sex, for some reason accusing the shadow chancellor of “political maso-sadism”.

It appears that David Cameron perhaps meant to accuse Ed Balls of being a sadomasochist instead.

Sadomasochism is the receiving or giving of pleasure from acts of pain or humiliation – the tenuous link Mr Cameron was levelling at Mr Ball’s treatment of the British economy under the Labour Party’s tenure.

"He said that he would be tough on the deficit and touch on the causes of the deficit. As he is one of the causes of the deficit, I think we've just found one of the first ever example of political maso-sadism," Mr Cameron said to the packed House.

The PM might have done better to read recent pornography guidelines: strictly prohibited under these new regulations are a number which would definitely fall under the sadomasochist bracket.

"We all knew what the Prime Minister meant," bellowed Speaker John Bercow over the yelling crowd.

His remark is doubly embarrassing because Mr Balls attacked Mr Cameron in the same fashion back in 2013 - only he managed not to mangle his words as the majority of the British press watched.

Attacking Mr Cameron over Europe, Mr Balls labelled his policy "like saddomaschism".

Still, some tweeters came to his rescue, noting that Urban Dictionary does contain a definition for Mr Cameron’s odd word.

According to the site, “A masosadist is a person who has more tendencies towards masochism, but with underlying tones of sadism.”

We're not convinced.

Twitter also reacted sceptically to the PM's exotic language: