David Cameron today accused the prime minister of being "incompetent" as he hit out at the failure to include MPs expenses in the legislative programme.
The Conservative leader said the failure to include the subject in the Queen's Speech had shown the government had run out of "time, ideas and courage".
In a Commons debate on the Queen's Speech, Gordon Brown insisted that it was not merely an electoral tool.
"When we propose these measures we are speaking up not in the party interest, but in the national interest," he told MPs.
And he said that the Labour party was the one party that had thepolicies to take the right decisions to deal with the recession andbuild a long term recovery.
The goverment proposed 15 bills or draft bills in the speech this morning, including three carry-over bills from the last session: the Equality Bill, the Child Poverty Bill and the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill.
Cameron said in the Commons this afternoon that what had been "most striking" was the subjects omitted from the legislative plans.
The speech had failed to mention immigration or the clear "dividing lines" of the NHS, Cameron said.
The biggest omission of all had been the failure to mention the Kelly Report and MPs expenses, with eleven measures needed to be passed into law, he told MPs.
The Tory leader promised to support Brown if he puts forward the laws – but the prime minister refused the opportunity to intervene and explain why they are not coming forward.
Cameron added that the failure to mention the NHS had shown it is "not this government's priority".
"If this dividing line is so important, why isn't it in the Queen's Speech. No mention of the NHS," he told the Commons.
"You're so incompetent you failed to put your own dividing line into your own Queen's Speech."
In Britain today, he said, there is an opposition playing the role of government, and a government "playing like an irresponsible opposition".
Cameron described the Queen's Speech as a "Labour press release on Palace parchment", and called for an "immediate election and a real Queen's Speech".
He added: "Stop wasting this country's time and just get on with calling the election."
Nick Clegg accused the government of squandering the opportunity to reform parliament by delivering a "fantasy" Queen's Speech.
"All the pageantry in the world cannot cover up the fact that this is a fantasy Queen’s Speech from a government that has run out of road in a Parliament that has lost the people’s trust," he told Commons.
The Liberal Democrat leader said the focus of the last 70 days of this Parliament should have been on transforming Britain's "threadbare" democratic institutions.
Addressing the government's legislative programme he said Labour had an over reliance on creating new laws.
"Legislation is Labour's comfort blanket, it makes them feel good," he said.
He added: "The legislation promised today is just a political displacement activity for real action to help people. How absurd is it to have a fiscal responsibility bill making it law for the government to halve the deficit over four years?"
"It’s like passing a law promising to get up early every morning.
"You don’t pass a law – you just do it. Does the PM have so little faith in his own self-discipline?"
