“COWARDLY” Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour’s Ed Miliband clashed across the Commons dispatch box yesterday over the shape of pre-election TV leadership debates.

Opposition MPs launched a barrage of clucking noises after the Tory top cat refused to commit to the on-air challenge.

Reminding the PM of his own words, Mr Miliband said: “In May 2010 talking about the TV debates a party leader said, and I quote: ‘It would have been feeble to find some excuse to back out. So I thought we’ve got to stick at this, we’ve got to do it.’

“Can he remind us who said that?”

But Mr Cameron defended his position not to appear if the Greens were excluded, retorting: “We had a set of European elections this year and Ukip and the Greens both beat the Liberal Democrats.

“You either have both of them or you have none of them.

“Why are you so chicken when it comes to the Greens?”

But Mr Miliband branded the PM’s argument a “pathetic excuse.”

“There’s only one person running scared of these debates — and that’s this Prime Minister,” the Labour leader said.

The Commons Punch-and-Judy show followed a joint letter to the PM from Mr Miliband, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg and Ukip counterpart Nigel Farage.

If Mr Cameron followed through with his threat it “would be a major setback to our democratic processes,” the trio said.

The decision on which parties to invite rested with broadcasters, they claimed, adding: “If you are unwilling to reconsider, the three party leaders who have committed to participate will ask the broadcasters to press ahead with the debates and provide an empty podium should you have a last minute change of heart.”

And the Greens hit back yesterday with their own letter to the opposition trio.

“Staging the debates without the Prime Minister might score a point but would not serve the public,” wrote leader Natalie Bennett.

“As a substantial majority of the British public would like to see the Green Party included in the debates, an alternative way forward would be for you to agree to this.

“This is the way forward which serves both democracy and the electorate best.”