In a letter to Mr Cameron he said: “I believe that community cohesion is being seriously threatened by the lack of funding to our city and others, I believe that the so-called summer of discontent will happen again if we do not address this issue.”

But Mr Cameron said: “Obviously I don’t agree with the mayor about that. What we are asking Liverpool to do is have the same level of funding it had in cash terms in 2010/11, I don’t think that is an unmanageable reduction.

“I don’t think it is right to make the sort of predictions that he did. It is the job of everyone in government, whether central government or local government, to use the taxpayers money as efficiently as possible.”

He said the police had been able to deliver crime reductions with less money.

Mayor Anderson did not raise the issue of government cuts in his speech at the launch of the festival.

He said: “Prime Minister I am delighted to welcome you here today, your support and your endorsement for the festival is hugely important for us all.

“I know like me the businesses here in this room will be delighted you are personally backing this event and I look forward to working with yourself and other ministers over coming months to make sure the International Festival for Business 2014 will be a huge success and something that you will be proud of.

“The International Festival of Business will be a truly international event, it will showcase everything that is best about business, entrepreneurship, and innovation, not just here in Liverpool and the city region but right across the UK and around the world.”

The festival is a 60 day-long business Expo, starting in June 2014, and is expected to attract 500,000 visitors.

Costing £15m, the festival is anticipated to generate £100m for the  region’s economy and valuable  worldwide exposure for Merseyside.

It will be staged in three locations: the ECHO Arena and BT Convention Centre, the new International Trade Centre in Wirral and a  temporary North Liverpool Investment Centre.