Tony Blair's final parliamentary session as Prime Minister began today with the pomp and ceremony of the Queen's Speech and a pledge, delivered by the monarch herself from her throne in the Lords, to push more than two dozen new Bills onto the statute books.

Mr Blair's final legislative agenda is a populist package of legislation dominated by crime and security measures on which the running will be made by John Reid, the Home Secretary.

The Prime Minister has already signalled his intention to leave office by next September and most observers expect him to be gone by the summer, but the Government is hoping to push at least 29 Bills through Parliament in this session.

They include five significant Home Office Bills, including one to bolster the rights of the victims of crime and another to make it easier for police to tackle gangsters. There is also a landmark Climate Change Bill that enshrine carbon emission reduction targets in law.

Delivering her annual address on the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen told MPs and peers: "At the heart of my Government's programme will be further action to provide strong, secure and stable communities, and to address the threat of terrorism.

"My Government will put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, support the police and all those responsible for the public's safety and proceed with the development of ID cards."

The package of measures was dismissed as "repetitive and hollow" by David Cameron, who gave his reaction to his first Queen's Speech as Leader of the Opposition when MPs returned to the Commons this afternoon.

In a confident performance, Mr Cameron attacked Labour for what he said was its failure to deliver on health and crime despite innumerable initiatives over the past decade.

He also claimed that the highlights of today's agenda - including the Climate Change Bill - had been stolen from his own party.

"The tragedy of this Prime Minister is that he promised so much and yet has delivered so little," Mr Cameron told MPs . "And the tragedy of this Queen’s Speech is that all his successor offers is more of the same.

"More laws on crime - yet violent crime up. More laws on health - yet hospitals closed. More laws on immigration - yet our borders still completely out of control. Every year the same promises. Every year the same failures."

He added: "The paradox of New Labour is that, twelve years on, the Prime Minister is still desperately looking for a legacy.

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