Tristram Hunt MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to the PAC report on Free Schools, said:

“David Cameron’s Free School programme is damaging school standards. The complete absence of local oversight of these schools, their disproportionately high cost and the failure of many to deliver the quality education we should expect is having a detrimental impact on our children’s schooling.

"This report is yet more evidence that David Cameron’s Free School programme is diverting precious resources away from areas in dire need of more school places, contributing to the primary places crisis this Tory-led Government is overseeing. This cannot be right.

"Labour would prioritise capital spending on areas of need and introduce Directors of School Standards in every local area to ensure decisions about new schools are based on the needs of the community, value for taxpayers money and raising education standards. Under this Tory-led Government politics and ideology come first and parents and pupils are paying the price.”