Tories drop plan to help jobless pay private school fees

Senior Tories moved swiftly to shield David Cameron from a fresh row today after it emerged that a London council was planning to subsidise private school fees.

Bromley council was forced to back down from its proposals after the Standard revealed that the borough was looking at moves to help families struggling to pay bills averaging £12,000 a year.

The Conservative-run council had asked lawyers to check the legality of using state cash to help those parents who had lost their jobs in the recession.

Along with many boroughs in the capital, Bromley is facing huge pressure to provide extra state school places for children whose parents can no longer afford to educate them privately. Councils have warned that primary class sizes will have to rise as more parents opt for free schooling.

But amid fears that the row could prove a repeat of last week's controversy over the NHS - when Tory MEP Daniel Hannan described the health service as "a 60-year mistake" - the council rushed out a statement that it had decided not to go ahead with its plans.

Council leader Stephen Carr said: "Quite rightly, as a result of a question put at a full council meeting at the end of June, officers felt duty bound to consider this, as is good practice. As I have already stated, there is no suggestion that this will be pursued."

Earlier, Ernest Noad, Bromley's cabinet member for children, made clear the idea had been actively considered. "The idea is that we might be able to earmark money to keep a child in a private school. At the end of the day, what matters is that each child gets a good education," he said.

Teachers' union NASUWT slammed the proposal as an "immoral" use of public money. Schools minister Iain Wright said that while councils had some flexibility about how they used public funds, they had a duty to help "all" children in the area.

"Last week we saw what the Tory party really thinks about the NHS and today we see how hollow their commitment to state schools really is," he said. "Is David Cameron using this Tory council to float a policy proposal he is secretly thinking of adopting?"

Senior Tory sources said that it was not national party policy to subsidise private school places. Bromley council put out its "clarification" today following liaison with Conservative Campaigns HQ.

Liberal Democrat schools spokesman David Laws said the Conservatives in Bromley were "showing their true colours, despite David Cameron's attempts to make the party into something it is not".

He added: "As the recession bites, it's clear that the Tories' priority is to protect the privileged.

"With state school budgets being squeezed, the last thing they need is to have their money diverted to the private sector."