Labour policies a "mixed bag", says Major

In a measured response to Labour's first Queen's Speech after nineteen years in opposition, Mr Major said there was a "very great deal" that the Tories could support. Some policies, he continued, were "rather familiar".

Blair: Labour has its feet on the ground

But the former Prime Minister pledged that Tony Blair's government would meet "vigorous opposition" on those policies which the Tories regard as running counter to the national interest. Mr Major also warned Labour to be careful in how it "will use that substantial majority in the House of Commons."

After congratulating Labour on its election victory, Mr Major criticised some of the early decisions made by the new government. The dramatic decision to give the Bank of England control over interest rates - announced last week by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown - was "unwise", Mr Major said. He argued that the decision "was neither discussed, nor considered in this House, nor announced to it, nor foreshadowed in the government's manifesto at the general election."

There were policies, Mr Major said, which would win Tory support, among them "strong defence based on NATO, completion of the single market, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, a wider and more open Europe, and, of course, a determination to pursue a peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland."

Mr Major predicted that the forthcoming Budget would push up taxes. "The government will not be able, with the pressure on them from their colleagues, to keep public expenditure down," he said. And he denounced the proposed Windfall Tax on the excess profits of privatised utilities as "a tax upon jobs, fuel bills, pensions and investment."

Mr Major drew laughter as well as hope on the Tory benches when he referred to the political thriller, A Very British Coup, written by the left-wing Labour MP, Chris Mullin. "It's a political novel about a Labour Prime Minister with an absolutely huge majority who makes a complete muck up of it and is deposed in a plot involving the Chancellor of the Exchequer!" Mr Major said.

During his contribution to the debate, Mr Blair focussed on Labour's manifesto pledges. "This is the ambitious but practical programme of a New Labour government that has its feet on the ground and sound values in its heart - the necessary mixture of idealism and realism that this modern age demands."

Ashdown: good intentions must be backed up by resources

The Liberal Democrat leader, Paddy Ashdown, promised that his party would play a role of "constructive opposition" in the new parliament. But he emphasised that Labour's plans could only be realised if there were resources to support them. "There are some issues, notably education, where the intentions are good but in our view are going to be meaningless unless they are matched by the resources in the classroom to make them a reality," Mr Ashdown said.

John Redwood, one of the five challengers for the leadership of the Conservative Party, made a lengthy contribution to the debate. Taunting Mr Blair's administration as a "government of photo-opportunities", Mr Redwood attacked Labour's health care policies. "I notice they are only trying to switch £100 million, one single day's spending, in the great health service budget," Mr Redwood said. "There is no way that our health service will be transformed by just one day's additional money for it," he said.