Michael Howard has challenged Tony Blair over Labour's "failed" pledge to stop any excessive increases in council tax.

Following inflation-busting rises in local taxes, the Tory leader asked why the prime minister had failed to honour his commitment to curb increases.

Howard said councils had been forced to levy "60 per cent increases" because of the "mountain of red tape" and burdens imposed by central government.

“Why won’t the prime minister just for once accept some responsibility,” he added.

The prime minister said he would "take no lessons in waste in local government... from the person who introduced the poll tax".

Blair went on to say that central government had massively increased local government grants.

But he warned there was no justification for "double digit" increases and called on councils to think hard before increasing bills.

“There is no reason why there should be rises in the council tax of previous years," said the prime minister.

"The fact is that we are increasing the amount of money given to local authorities, in the end it is up to them but they should bear in mind the fact that for many people council tax increases are a burden to bear."

Opportunism

In a later exchange on Blair’s move to allow random drug testing in schools, Howard faced the charge of “opportunism”.