By Steve Bargeton, political editor

SIR MENZIES Campbell’s bid to lead the Liberal Democrats stumbled at the first hurdle yesterday after a poor performance during clashes with Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Commons.

The acting Liberal Democrat leader was taunted and jeered as he bombed in his first public performance since throwing his hat in the ring to replace Charles Kennedy. North East Fife MP Sir Menzies set aside his strong suit of foreign affairs to tackle the Prime Minister on “making a mess” of public service reform.

There were howls of laughter across the chamber when he demanded to know of Mr Blair why “one in five schools do not have a permanent head.”

Seizing on the gaffe, Labour backbenchers pointed towards the hapless Sir Menzies, who of course is himself acting head of his leaderless party. Quick to press the advantage a beaming Mr Blair quipped, “It can be difficult to find a permanent head of an organisation when the post is vacant—particularly if it is a failing organisation.”

Adding insult to injury Mr Blair welcomed Sir Menzies as acting leader, saying, “I’ll give him an even bigger welcome if it becomes permanent, not temporary.”

With chaos all about him, Sir Menzies was reduced to accepting that this had not been the debut he had hoped for and said, “I just knew it was going to be one of those days.”

Fortunately for Sir Menzies, he was not the only senior Liberal Democrat to come off worst at the hands of an in-form Mr Blair.

During Question Time the party president, Simon Hughes, who is expected to launch his leadership campaign at 3 pm today, asked why patients in England were having to pay thousands for private operations if the NHS was doing so well under Labour.

Mr Blair accused the Lib Dems of opposing Labour’s NHS reforms but said he might support Mr Hughes if he now backed the Government’s NHS policies.

“If he’s going to start backing our reforms, I’m going to start backing him rather than the other one.”

The “other one” in question was Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten, the only other declared leadership challenger.

“Where’s the other one?” demanded Mr Blair.

Mr Oaten chose not to be in the chamber and was instead commentating on the proceedings in a television studio.

Game, set and match Mr Blair.

Shaking his head in mock admonishment the Prime Minster told MSPs, “The Liberal Democrats have got some hard thinking to do over the next few days.”

It was not the best of starts for the race to replace Charles Kennedy. Some commentators have likened Sir Menzies’ performance to the disastrous party conference speech that cost David Davis the leadership of the Tory Party.

*Sir Menzies is officially the Chancellor of St Andrews University. Sir Menzies was the sole nominee, and has been appointed by the institution’s general council with immediate effect.

The university announced yesterday that the election had been automatically confirmed by the clerk to the general council.

Sir Menzies succeeds Sir Kenneth Dover (85) who retired from office on January 1 after 25 years as the university’s titular head.