Michael Howard used the first prime minister's questions after the summer recess to accuse Tony Blair of presiding over a "shambles" in government yesterday.

The Tory leader argued that ministers are so undermined by plotting that they were unable to deliver their policy pledges.

Howard said the anonymous criticism of Andrew Smith followed a pattern that prevented ministers from doing their jobs effectively.

Tony Blair responded that it was not his style of government that mattered but its results.

He said: "The test of a government is not what appears in the newspapers every day but this: two million extra jobs, the halving of unemployment, the introduction of the minimum wage, the lowest interest rates and inflation for 30 years, two million pensioners lifted out of poverty.

"What Conservative government that you were a member of ever achieved an economic and social record like that?"