Gordon Brown brushed aside attempted attacks over the latest unemployment figures today to call yet again for nations around the world to join him in giving a stimulus to their economies.

In a bad-tempered question time, dominated by a row over the Haringey baby death, the Prime Minister urged the Conservatives to "come into the real world" and back plans that were already being pursued by Germany, China, Australia and Spain.

Unemployment has surged to an 11-year high as the recession tightens its grip on Britain, after the number of people out of work grew by 140,000 to 1.82 million. Today's figures show that unemployment during the three months to September rose to the highest levels since the end of 1997, and the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance also rose, up by 36,500 to 980,900 last month.

The rise in claimants was slightly less than analysts had expected, but was still the ninth successive increase and the biggest monthly jump in 16 years. Economists now forecast that the total will soar to more than one million next month.

This morning, Downing Street seized on remarks from Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, in which he said boosting the economy from borrowing was "reasonable", provided a clear path to balancing the books in future was outlined.

Mr Brown said the new situation of low inflation next year, the downturn and a credit cruch required "very special measures".

Other countries were already taking similar steps and “it is about time the Conservatives entered the real world”, he said.

But Mr Brown’s comments drew an angry response from Conservative leader David Cameron, who said: “Only this Prime Minister could be quite so smug on the day 140,000 people have lost their jobs.”

Tory MP Richard Ottaway said every Labour government had left office with unemployment higher than when it entered. But Mr Brown drew cheers from his own MPs when he said Labour had created three million jobs in the last 10 years and that unemployment was still much lower than the three million it had been under the opposition. He added that Labour had never said "unemployment is a price worth paying" as the Conservatives had.

Today's grim figures came just a day after a raft of household names announced massive job cuts, with more than 4,200 positions set to go in the UK alone. Virgin Media, Psion, GlaxoSmithkline and Taylor Wimpey all said they would be axing British staff, with Vodafone expected to announce job cuts imminently.

Tony McNulty, Minister for Employment said: “Every time a worker loses their job it is a personal tragedy and the Government is doing everything it can to get those people who have become unemployed back to work as quickly as possible.

"People who are worried about the current downturn need to know that there are jobs out there – the claimant count may be rising, but large numbers of people are also moving off benefits and into jobs."

Mr McNulty announced that funding for Jobcentre Plus' Rapid Response Service would be doubled from £3 million to £6 million. He refused to speculate on a "worst case scenario" of unemployment figures but admitted "we are not at the bottom of the downturn".

Mel Groves, Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus, said that they were "coping" with an increase in new jobseekers allowance claims, which have risen from 45,000 a week in the spring to 63,000 last week.

Analysts said that more job losses were likely, and that pressure was now mounting on the Bank of England to make further rate cuts to try and boost the flagging economy, which is already widely believed to be in recession.

Vicky Redwood, of Capital Economics, the economic consultancy, said: "Much worse is to come – we expect unemployment to peak in 2010 at around 3.3 million. The rapid deterioration in the labour market highlights the need for interest rates to fall much further."

John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said: “These figures, which take unemployment to an 11 year high will sadly be followed by further bad news in the coming months."

The Bank of England has said that the country is set for an 18-month long recession, heaping more pressure on firms to cut jobs as demand dwindles.

Unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds rose to a 13-year high, with 579,000 out of work, while long term unemployment has also increased. The number of people out of work for longer than a year rose by 20,000 to 435,000.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to unveil details of how the Government will fund Britain's economic recovery when he announces the Pre-Budget Report on Monday, November 24.

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