Nic Dakin MP, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, commenting on Tory proposals to scrap parent governors said: “This is yet another case of the Tories cutting parents out of the picture when it comes to their child’s school. This move will further reduce collaboration in local areas and partnerships between parents, schools and communities.

“The wholesale forced academisation of schools is a costly and unnecessary reorganisation of the schools system that will reduce parent choice and distract school leaders from focusing on what really matters, raising standards in the classroom.

“The Tories’ obsession with school structures will do nothing to tackle the real problems facing our education system: a teacher recruitment and retention crisis, a broken school places system and a widening attainment gap between poor pupils and their peers.”