Nick Clegg has publicly voiced his opposition to Adrian Beecroft's proposed changes to employment law which would make it easier for bosses to fire employees without resorting to a tribunal.

Asked about the report at a question and answer session following this morning's speech on social mobility, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "I don't support them: I never have. And for the simple reason that I've not seen any evidence yet that creating industrial-scale insecurity amongst millions of workers is a way of securing new jobs."

Meanwhile, Downing Street has rejected Labour’s claims the Government “doctored” the report. The Prime Minister's official spokeswoman repeatedly said this afternoon that "it is his final report", but avoided agreeing that Mr Beecroft had signed off the final draft.

Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna had argued the difference between a draft version of the report, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, and the final version “questions the independence” of the findings.

Business Secretary Vince Cable yesterday said one recommendation in the report – to make it easier to sack workers – was the “wrong approach”.

Nick Clegg has publicly voiced his opposition to Adrian Beecroft's proposed changes to employment law which would make it easier for bosses to fire employees without resorting to a tribunal.

Asked about the report at a question and answer session following this morning's speech on social mobility, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "I don't support them: I never have. And for the simple reason that I've not seen any evidence yet that creating industrial-scale insecurity amongst millions of workers is a way of securing new jobs."

Meanwhile, Downing Street has rejected Labour’s claims the Government “doctored” the report. The Prime Minister's official spokeswoman repeatedly said this afternoon that "it is his final report", but avoided agreeing that Mr Beecroft had signed off the final draft.

Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna had argued the difference between a draft version of the report, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, and the final version “questions the independence” of the findings.

Business Secretary Vince Cable yesterday said one recommendation in the report – to make it easier to sack workers – was the “wrong approach”.

The full Beecroft report on employment law reform has been published by the Government, after it was leaked to the press.

Answering an urgent question on the report in the place of Vince Cable, business minister Mark Prisk said a copy of the plans that had been leaked to the Daily Telegraph was from "an earlier draft of the report". The full report was released by the Business department this afternoon.

Mr Cable said this evening the report was being released to "dispel myths" about its contents.

He also vowed to fight Conservative attempts to implement a recommendation for the introduction of 'no fault dismissal'.

"In my daily conversations with businesses, this has very rarely been raised with me as a barrier to growth," he said.

“Businesses are much more concerned about access to finance or weak demand than they are about this issue.

"At a time when workers are proving to be flexible in difficult economic conditions it would almost certainly be counterproductive to increase fear of dismissal."

Writing in the Sun today, Dr Cable said it is "complete nonsense" to imagine that stripping labour rights would boost hiring, adding: “I am opposed to the ideological zealots who want firms to fire at will.”

Labour leader Ed Miliband said he was "very concerned" about the proposals for no fault dismissal.

"We need a plan to get people hired not get people to be fired," he told ITV News.

"One of the problems about the British economy, I believe, is there isn’t enough commitment between employers and employees and the Beecroft proposals are putting them in the opposite direction."

An ally of Mr Cable, former Liberal Democrat House of Lords Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott told the World at One that the proposals in the Beecroft report for no-fault dismissals would not go through into legislation. He said: "All Liberal Democrats are against a sack-on-the-spot mentality and it just won't happen."

He called the proposal "bonkers" and said that leaving people frightened about their job security was the "economics of the madhouse".

The question in the Commons had been tabled by Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna, who argued that "watering down people's rights at work is no substitute for a proper growth strategy." He added that the current economic crisis was nothing to do with employment law, and argued that altering the law would have "a huge negative impact on consumer confidence. They've run out of excuses for getting this country into a double-dip recession."

Liberal Democrat MPs John Hemming, Jo Swinson and Duncan Hames also asked the Minister for assurances that certain groups of workers would be protected under the reforms.

Plans to shake up business regulation will spark Coalition tensions when they are published this week. The measures to rip up red tape stem from a report by venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft, and include making it easier for firms to make staff redundant. The Liberal Democrats are unhappy with the report, dismissing it as "merely the view of one man".

Employers bidding to take over one of the state-owned Remploy factories will be offered a short-term wage subsidy by the Government.

The £10m concession came - alongside a new deadline for submissions - after potential bidders requested financial support for laking on the loss-making factories.

General Motors has decided to keep Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant, meaning 2,100 jobs have been saved.

Further jobs will also be created and the plant is set to manufacture the new Astra model from 2015. Vince Cable flew to the US in February when General Motors said it was losing money in the UK and the were fears for the plant's closure.

The Business Secretary said the Government had persuaded General Motors that Britain was a "very good business environment" to manufacture cars.

He told the Today programme: "The Government's role has been to work with the union here, Unite, it's been a combined kind of British effort to persuade the company that Britain is a very good place to develop their business. I personally went to the States to talk to their chief executive and chairman and other people have been involved too.

"I think they have been persuaded that this is a very good business environment for the motor vehicle industry and you've seen the evidence over the last few days, Britain now runs a trade surplus in cars for the first time for a generation and other companies, not just General Motors but Nissan, Ford, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover put in, I think, £4bn of new investment over the last 18 months."

Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna welcomed the "fantastic" news for the region, and praised the work of local Labour MPs in securing today's outcome.

"Coupled with this week’s news that the UK now has a surplus in the trade of cars, this is testament to the success of this approach and what can be achieved when government adopts an active approach, working alongside business and in partnership with unions and employees," he said.

As many as one in five apprenticeships are too short and provide "no real benefit" to trainees or their employers, MPs have said. The Public Accounts Committee praised the increase in apprenticeships - which quadrupled in number in the four years to 2011 - but voiced concern over “the quality and amount of training some apprentices receive", which it considered to be "inadequate”.

David Cameron today welcomed a 45,000 fall in unemployment figures as he clashed with Ed Miliband at Prime Minister's Questions.

The Prime Minister said: "First of all let me welcome the fact that on this occasion he has welcomed the fall in unemployment... the claimant count has come down and it is worth making the point that the number of people on out of work benefits has fallen by 70,000."

Unemployment now stands at 2.63m, with the number of people on Jobseekers Allowance falling by 13,700 to 1.59m.

Official figures published today also revealed that youth unemployment was down 17,000 in the first quarter of 2012.

Employment minister Chris Grayling told BBC News that he hoped the figures were not a blip. He said: "We're clearly living through difficult times economically but any improvement in the labour market is very welcome. I think particularly the drop in youth unemployment.”

Asked if these figures were a blip and that unemployment will probably go up, Mr Grayling said: "Well I hope not. Clearly it is a difficult time ecomically, that's why I'm always cautious about an individual set of figures.”

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "Clearly a fall in unemployment is something that should be welcomed. But we are putting in place a number of measures to support people when they find themselves unemployed. .. [But] unemployment is a lagging indicator. If you wanted to think about what was going to happen in the future, you would be better placed looking at survey data [on manufacturing and business orders] rather than unemployment data." He refused to say that the figures represented 'green shoots' of recovery.