Tristram Hunt MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to reports that the head teacher of one of David Cameron’s flagship free schools has been arrested, said:

“David Cameron’s schools policy has left schools too open and too exposed to risk. Recent events in Birmingham schools have revealed that our children’s education is suffering as a result of the damaging lack of local oversight in the school system.

“The alleged fabrication of invoices and misuse of public funds at one of the Prime Minister’s flagship free schools, leading to today’s arrest, speaks to the fundamental failings in David Cameron’s free schools policy.

“Labour will introduce new local Directors of School Standards in all areas of the country. This will deliver a tough new system of local oversight for all state schools, rooting out falling standards and spotting problems before they set in.”