David Cameron has said he could not live on a zero hours contract as he was quizzed on his "failure to fix broken Britain" during a live TV showdown.
At the beginning of an 18-minute interview session with Jeremy Paxman the Prime Minister was accused of defending the rich - including his defence of the TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson - but not the poor.
Mr Cameron said he did not know how many food banks there were in Britain now and was told the number had increased from 66 to 421 while he has been in power.
The Prime Minister was also asked about the 700,000 people on zero hours contracts, which have boomed in the recession, and grilled about whether he could live on one.
He replied: "No I could not live on one of those."
He said: "Obviously I want fewer people to be using food banks and I want more people to have the security of a job."
Mr Cameron was also admitted that his Government had not "finished the job" on driving down the deficit and when asked about the £500bn borrowing sum said: "Well that is a lot less than the previous Government was borrowing."
He also admitted he failed to hit his immigration target - he had pledged to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands but missed it by more than 200,000.
He said: "We have not met the commitment on immigration - I fully admit that."
n an attempt to stave off the UKIP threat, Mr Cameron repeated his promise that only one party could deliver a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.
However, he said he would first attempt to reform Europe before putting the issue to the British public.
David Cameron is the first to face an interview with Channel 4's Jeremy Paxman followed by town hall-style questions from a 105-strong audience hosted by Sky's Kay Burley.
Labour had won the toss of a coin and decided to go second, leaving Ed Miliband with the final word as the General Election fight begins in earnest.
The Prime Minister had refused to debate Mr Miliband head-to-head and while the two men are in the same studio, taking questions from the same audience, they will not take the stage together.
The Sky News/Channel 4 Battle for Number 10 event is the first and last chance for voters to compare the leaders side-by-side - the other big media set pieces involve the leaders of other parties.
