British PM in `career-defining` election slip

London: Politicians are often accused of pursuing their own interests and British Prime Minister David Cameron did little to dispel the impression Friday when he called next week`s general election "career-defining".

"This is a real career-defining, country-defining election that we face now in less than a week`s time," the Conservative leader said as he urged people to vote on May 7.

He was addressing workers at the ASDA supermarket chain`s headquarters in Leeds, northern England.

Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband immediately seized on the apparent slip, accusing Cameron of being more focused on his legacy than the state of the country.

"That tells you the difference between us. He thinks this election is about him. I think it`s about you the British people," he told voters on the campaign trail.

Cameron later denied that he had slipped by referring to the election as career-defining as well as crucial for the country.

"I meant both," he told ITV television.

"I was looking out at that big audience at ASDA and for them it is career-defining.

"I meant both country-defining and career-defining."

He added: "It is not about me, it is about people`s jobs in this country. That is what I was thinking about."

It is not Cameron`s first election gaffe -- last week he got the name of his favourite football team wrong, which commentators put down to campaign exhaustion.

With less than a week to go, the Conservatives and Labour are neck-and-neck in the opinion polls, with neither on course to win a parliamentary majority.