Iain Duncan Smith has taken Tony Blair to task over rising levels of street crime.

The Tory leader attacked Labour's record on crime in Commons exchanges during prime minister's questions.

"The prime minister once described child curfew orders as eminently sensible. Can he tell us exactly when the last one was issued?" he began.

Blair attempted to pre-empt his line of attack by saying the age limit for the curfews had been dropped.

He said they were "a very important part of the armoury police and local authorities can have for the future".

Duncan Smith came back saying no orders had been issued in the last two years.

He lamented the fact that only 500 anti-social behaviour orders had been passed in total - whilst there had been "50 stunts and initiatives" since the home secretary took up his post.

There was one more mugging in London per day for every stunt announced by David Blunkett, he claimed.

"It's no good the home secretary sneering," Duncan Smith continued. "Figures for his constituency show that robbery is actually up by nearly 50 per cent."

Blair conceded that street crime was up, but stressed that overall crime had fallen.

He claimed the problem of street crime in the capital was being taken seriously by ministers.

"As a result of the additional measures being taken, we are confident that by the end of September, we will have brought this problem under control," he said.

The prime minister's key line of attack, both on crime and later on health, was that the Conservatives planned to vote against measures that would bring improvement.

"The Conservative Party in the House of Lords are apparently opposing community safety officers, so perhaps you will tell us whether if you really support the drive against street crime, you are prepared to change that position and support the legislation," he said.

Duncan Smith later attacked the Budget spending on health. He demanded: "By the time of the next election when we have European standards of spending will we have European standards of healthcare?"

Blair responded that not only would the UK match Europe but in some cases standards would be even higher.

He added that on health, the Conservatives had no alternative solution for where extra money would come from - despite agreeing the NHS needed more cash.

Charles Kennedy called for government action on the Ministry of Defence's failure to allow 7000 service pensioners to collect their pensions at post offices.

The Lib Dem leader warned it could be the "thin end of the wedge" and questioned "which deserving group in society is going to be next?".

The prime minister defended the MoD, saying is was acceptable to take into account the cost of delivering pensions.

"It is not wrong for the government to take into account the effect of cost on policy," he said.

Blair criticised the Lib Dem approach to making spending commitments, saying "they have to realise, in the end, cost can sometimes be an issue".

Labour backbencher Mike Gapes asked Blair if he hoped France would remain a vibrant, multi-racial, European democracy and that British voters would reject the BNP on May 2.

"I am sure that France is a strong and a decent country and I have no doubt that they will reject the form of extremism represented by Le Pen," said Blair.

"There is no future in that type of narrow-minded racism, nationalism. Most people understand that those policies are not only wrong but they offer no real solution to the challenges that face developed countries in the world."