A leading headteacher has told ministers to keep their "hands off" Britain's top public schools.
Bernard Trafford, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), representing 250 elite schools, accused the Government of attempting to undermine their independence.
Dr Trafford urged HMC members, who include Eton and Harrow, to resist attempts to bring independent schools under the influence of "the government's rottweiler" - Ofsted.
Speaking at the HMC annual conference in Bournemouth, Dr Trafford, head of Wolverhampton Grammar School, said: "We need to protect our independence because it's under threat.
"Above all it's under threat, deliberately or unwittingly - I suspect a mixture of both - from government.
"So we must say, very firmly, hands off. We are independent. We need to be very robust in defence of our independence - and fight this latest creeping regulation."
Dr Trafford attacked plans to force all independent schools to register with the education inspectorate Ofsted, instead of the Government's Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
"It's a bit fluffier these days, but its role is still that of the government enforcer. Its data-obsessed methods are inimical to our sector and don't inspect or validate what is important to us."
"It is simply not acceptable to suggest that Ofsted should be both judge and jury, monitoring our inspections as it does now but also registering and regulating our schools."
Dr Trafford also accused ministers of trying to "nick" the word "independent" by claiming that their flagship privately sponsored city academies are "independent" schools.
