Tony Blair was forced yesterday to defend his reshuffle against charges that it was the "most botched, bungled and damaged in modern times".

The Prime Minister defended his constitutional changes in the Commons against an onslaught from Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, saying they would be widely welcomed in the legal profession.

He also assured parliament they would be widely debated by peers and MPs before they came into force.

But Mr Duncan Smith said: "Last week the Prime Minister ripped up the constitution in a matter of hours without consultation - as though our constitution was the Prime Minister's personal plaything."

The Prime Minister announced on Thursday that the Lord Chancellor would no longer appoint judges, sit as a judge or act as Speaker of the Lords.

Mr Blair told MPs: "At present judges are effectively selected by the Lord Chancellor. It is increasingly anomalous for a minister, and an unelected one at that, to choose judges in this way."

Judges would now be appointed by an independent commission, an open process "long advocated by many inside and outside the legal profession".

The premier confirmed the Lord Chancellor would eventually cease to sit as Speaker in the upper house, saying that having a minister in that role was "virtually unique" in any democracy.

* Lord Falconer was sworn in as the last Lord Chancellor in front of a packed court.

The eight-minute ceremony at London's Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand was relaxed and jovial.

Mr Blair's former flatmate will oversee controversial reforms that abolish the post, which dates back 1,400 years.