A Government minister has admitted that his comments that Britons should stop being “so bloody miserable” were ill-timed in the face of the economic downturn.

Tom Harris, a junior transport minister and MP for Glasgow South, wrote in a blog post headlined Heaven Knows We’re Miserable Now that despite, the recent credit crunch, the UK has never been so wealthy.

The furious reaction of fellow bloggers and the Conservative Party compelled him to admit this morning that comments were badly timed with the economy faltering.

“I’m the first to admit that timing isn’t my strong point,” Mr Harris told GMTV today, suggesting that his views had been misconstrued.

“I never said to anyone that I think people should cheer up - that is completely wrong. It would be utterly arrogant of me or anyone else to tell people who are facing very difficult times to cheer up.”

His comments came shortly after Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, issued his bleakest assessment yet of the economic outlook.

In his blog, Mr Harris complained that people were afflicted by “crippling levels of cynicism and pessimism” rather than any real economic hardship.

“High-def TVs fly off the shelves at Tesco quicker than they can be imported. Whatever the latest technological innovation, most people can treat themselves to it,” he said.

“Eating out - a rare treat when I was a child in the ’70s - is as commonplace as going shopping. And when we do go shopping, whether for groceries or for clothes, we spend money in quantities that would have made our parents gasp.”

Unaware of the furore he was creating, the minister went on to write: “There are more two-car homes in Britain today than there are homes without a car at all.

“We live longer, eat healthier (if we choose), have better access to forms of entertainment never imagined a generation ago (satellite TV, DVD, computer games), the majority of us have fast access to the worldwide web, which we use to enable even more spending and for entertainment.

“So why is everyone so bloody miserable?”

The question was denounced by Philip Hammond, the shadow treasury chief secretary.

“Like his boss, Gordon Brown, he clearly lives on a different planet from ordinary hard-working families who are struggling with soaring living costs, stagnant earnings and falling house prices,” he said.

“The short answer to Mr Harris’s question asking why everyone is so miserable is, ‘Because we’ve got Gordon Brown as our Prime Minister’.”

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