Tom Richmond: Cameron must concentrate his battle on the home front

He then travelled onto Benghazi where a looming massacre forced Cameron, and others, to set up a Nato-led mission to prevent a slaughter of the innocents that would have stained the world’s conscience.

There Cameron, and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, were granted a reception that both men can only dream about in their respective countries. No wonder they played to the crowd.

Yet, while the Tory leader can claim credit for Nato’s intervention bringing an end to Muammar Gaddafi’s tyranny, he needs to remember that elections are not won on the international stage.

They continue to be dominated by domestic policies – Margaret Thatcher’s 1983 landslide was as much to do with Labour’s disarray rather than the Falklands factor – and Cameron neglects the home front at his peril.

His Libya mission, understandable though possibly premature given the continuing turmoil, was the third day in four that he had spent overseas – last week began with a two-day bridge building visit to Russia.

Yet, while Cameron was on the powerplay overseas, his deficit reduction plans were coming under intense scrutiny as unemployment surged – and fears grew about a Europe-wide banking crisis that would send Britain hurtling towards a double dip recession. If this wasn’t bad enough, Ken Clarke – Cameron’s Justice Secretary and a former Chancellor – spoke for many with his assertion that political leadership in Washington and Western Europe has suffered “paralysis” over the financial crisis, and remains “overwhelmed” by the scale of the difficulties.

Clarke went on to say how the UK’s fate depended on “how these people sort it out” – a reference to European finance ministers, including George Osborne, who met in Poland at the weekend.

Yet it is difficult to see how Britain’s interests will be defended when Cameron is topping up his “air miles” so frequently – Canada is this week’s destination – and when his only response to the unemployment rise was to describe the figures as “disappointing”.

Disappointing? That has to be the understatement of the year, given that the jobless increase was the most pronounced for two years and happened on his watch at a time when so many Yorkshire towns and cities once again find themselves on the wrong side of the North-South divide.

It was also disingenuous of Cameron to blame Labour’s poisonous economy legacy that he had the misfortune to inherit – the PM and his finance team have had 16 months to put in place their recovery plans.

And, while it was always going to require decisive action on the coalition’s part to preserve Britain’s global credit rating, that does not justify the PM’s increasing aloofness as he struts the world stage while people lose their jobs back home.

As one disillusioned Leeds voter suggested to me as Cameron flew to Tripoli, he will do anything to build a new transport system for Libya – but is in denial, for example, about how this country’s ailing infrastructure is holding back Yorkshire’s economic potential.

As such, he should leave the foreign affairs brief – in its entirety – to the capable William Hague, the Richmond MP, so that he can work full-time on his responsibilities as First Lord of the Treasury. I note Greece’s PM has, thankfully, cancelled a visit to Washington where his host, President Barack Obama, is in no position to preach sound economics.

Cameron also needs to ditch the trivialities like cutting the number of MPs or imposing elected mayors and police commissioners on the public; they are not priorities.

In short, he needs to “work morning, noon and night” – the pledge made by Michael Heseltine, the then Deputy Prime Minister during the recession of the early 1990s – to help create the two million jobs that are required before Britain can even return to pre-recession employment levels.

And, rather than using former Chancellor Alistair Darling’s memoirs Back From The Brink to score political points against Labour, Cameron should heed two key points.

First, Darling – an honourable man – questioned the effectiveness of regional development agencies, suggesting that they spent too much time commissioning reports. How can the coalition’s Local Enterprise Partnerships, the replacement for bodies like Yorkshire Forward, have any chance of success when they have shoestring budgets?

Second, in noting the importance of domestic policy over foreign affairs, Darling used to visit his local Tesco store to sense the mood and says “humility and honesty” are the two most important traits in politics.

He’s right. If he’s to have any chance of regaining the public’s confidence, Cameron needs to acknowledge that his economic policies are not working – and to begin work on a new job creation plan.

Sound financial policy will not be formed on the streets of Moscow, Tripoli or Kabul, despite vague promises of future contracts.

It can only be developed in Britain, and it is time – at a pivotal moment for the euro and wider eurozone – for the Prime Minister to put his domestic agenda before his global grandstanding.