Iain Duncan Smith used the first PMQ's of 2003 yesterday to target the government's record on cutting crime.

The Tory leader said: "We have had tough on crime, three strikes and out, on-the-spot fines, night courts, drugs tsars, no less than 12 criminal justice Bills and countless pieces of meaningless drivel. Isn't his real policy on law and order just a combination of gimmicks and hot air?"

In response, Tony Blair insisted that the British Crime Survey revealed that burglary had fallen by almost 40 per cent under his government.

Yesterday's new-look PMQs gets a downbeat response from the Commons sketch writers.

The Telegraph's Frank Johnson thought it was slow because MPs were sober.

"Most backbenchers are not at their best before lunch," he says.

Writing in today's Times, the Labour backbencher Austin Mitchell says: "Our body chemistry is geared to an afternoon high. Now that this comes earlier we go off the boil sooner."

He goes on to say: "Have nothing to do except wonder if we can really be a great parliament if our highest aspiration is to get home early to watch telly."