The prime minister has been put on the spot over the resignation of his work and pensions secretary.

Michael Howard called on Tony Blair to say who was responsible for the "briefing and poison" against Andrew Smith.

Demanding to know whether the Labour leader regretted Smith's resignation, he said the prime minister had to take responsibility for "ill discipline and briefing in the Westminster village".

"In the last few days his former work and pensions secretary, his former chief and whip and his current party chairman have all criticised his style of government," he said.

"Who is responsible for that style of government?" he asked. "The prime minister simply refuses to answer for the way his government is run."

Hitting back, Blair called on the Tories to focus on policies such as the New Deal and the fall in incapacity benefit claimants.

The Opposition leader was guilty of an "utter absence" of policy proposals, he said.

The issue was not about the style of government, but "the record of government... [which] is one of which we can be proud", added Blair.

On pensions, the prime minister said the Tory policy would see "20 million people losing out".

Counter attack

Howard, however, dismissed the counter attack.

"Isn't the shambles in the way this government is run one of the reasons why they so completely failed to deliver on their promises," he said.

"As his pensions secretaries come and go let me quote to him the words of his first minister for welfare reform: 'The big issue that ought to be worrying the whole of government, because it is worrying voters, is that when Labour came to office we had one of the strongest pensions provisions in Europe and now we probably have some of the weakest'.

"Isn't that the fact of the matter. Isn't that the record of his government. Isn't the pensions crisis down to the failure of this government?"

Dismissing Blair's remarks, Howard said the recent media onslaught between ministers highlighted the "shambles" at the heart of government.

"Isn't it time that the prime minister stopped changing his ministers and started changing his policies?" he added.

Howard also challenged the prime minister to appoint a single minister responsible for homeland security.

At the first session of prime minister's questions since July, the Tory leader said the Beslan tragedy illustrated the need to defeat terrorism "wherever it takes place".