Blair is a laws 'addict' - Lib Dems

1.18.58pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 20th Nov 2006

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of being "addicted" to bringing in new laws. In his response to the Queen's Speech, he said legislation passed since 1997 ran to more than 114,000 pages.

The Prime Minister's priority in office had not been "education, education, education" but "legislation, legislation, legislation", he added. The Queen's Speech sets out 25 bills and four draft bills. These cover areas including anti-social behaviour, climate change and pensions reform.

Sir Menzies told MPs: "The government and the Prime Minister suffer from a statutory addiction. Since 1997 this government has passed 365 acts of Parliament and more than 32,000 statutory instruments."

He added: "Before the Prime Minister was elected, he told us that his priority was education, education, education. "Since he was elected, his priority has been legislation, legislation, legislation." Sir Menzies also said the Prime Minister had also played down the "complexity of the crisis in Iraq".