Transport Minister Tom Harris has told families across Britain to stop being so miserable

A Labour minister who demanded to know why Britons were 'so bloody miserable' felt the force of public outrage yesterday over the soaring cost of living.

Tom Harris took to the airwaves to apologise if he had caused offence when he insisted that the public had 'never been so wealthy' despite the credit crunch hitting the economy.

The bike-riding Transport Minister claimed he had been trying to start a debate about why people found it hard to find 'contentment when we have so much material wealth'.

He insisted: 'I absolutely was not telling people to cheer up'  -  but admitted that 'timing isn't my strong point'.

However, his explanation for his remarks  -  which were revealed in yesterday's Daily Mail  -  appeared to cut little ice with viewers and listeners.

Mr Harris was harangued by scores for his 'arrogant' approach at a time when families are struggling with rising food and fuel costs, falling house prices and below-inflation pay rises.

Several complained that a minister earning £92,100 a year and claiming more than £150,000 in expenses was ill-placed to lecture others.

His strategy also appeared to backfire when he suggested that voters  -  not politicians  -  are the ones who are 'out of touch'.

The Glasgow South MP told BBC Radio Five Live: 'The idea that politicians are out of touch is an out- of-touch idea because politicians live in their constituencies, we speak to constituents all of the time and have families of our own.'

With Downing Street desperate to show voters that it understands their concerns over food and fuel prices, ministers were aghast at the row.

But Gordon Brown declined to criticise his minister. He said Mr Harris had been pointing out that Britain had become much wealthier over the past ten years  -  but had now acknowledged the pressures people faced currently.

'As he said this morning, people are facing very difficult problems in terms of food prices, petrol prices and mortgage prices and he recognised the problems that people are facing,' the Prime Minister said.

The furore erupted after Mr Harris complained on his Internet blog that people seemed to be afflicted by 'crippling levels of cynicism and pessimism'.

Tom Harris

He claimed high-definition TVs are flying off the shelves, people could treat themselves to 'whatever the latest technological innovation', and were spending sums on food and clothes that 'would have made our parents gasp'.

Eating out was as commonplace as going shopping, crime was down and the threat of terrorism had not altered anyone's pattern of behaviour.

He declared: 'In our own country today, despite the recent credit squeeze, our citizens have never been so wealthy. So why is everyone so bloody miserable?'

The Tories said his comments had taken Labour's 'arrogance and complacency to a whole new level'.

But Mr Harris insisted: 'I was simply asking why people in the current generation  -  even those who aren't suffering as much from the current economic slowdown  -  aren't as happy as our parents' generation.'

On GMTV, he said: 'Of course people are facing very difficult problems in terms of food prices, petrol prices and mortgage prices.

'I was trying to point out that there is a generational gap between the level of happiness  -  the difficulty that this generation finds in achieving some level of contentment compared to a generation ago.

'I'm the first to admit that timing isn't my strong point. It would be utterly arrogant of me or anyone else to tell people who are facing very difficult times to cheer up.

'The point I was trying to make wasn't about the day-to- day and shortterm economic problems.

'It was about an environmental, cultural, almost spiritual problem we have where materialism and possessions just aren't cutting it.'

But Mr Harris's blog was also inundated with comments from critics. One, John McDermott, wrote: 'Yep, you and your Parliamentary cronies have never had it so good, that's for sure, with second home allowances and just about everything paid for, including food and council tax.'

But Mr Harris won support from Labour peer Lord Layard, an expert in so-called 'happiness economics'.

He said: 'Surveys show people are no happier now than 50 years ago.

'The reason is deterioration in the quality of human relationships, both with family and very importantly with everybody else generally.'