The Conservative leader of Kent County Council has sounded a warning over his party's commitment to allow parents to set up schools, saying they would mean other council-run schools losing money.

Free schools are a major plank of Conservative education policy and are modelled on a similar system operated in Sweden.

His criticisms were seized on by Labour, with schools secretary Ed Balls saying Cllr Carter's comments had "let the cat out of the bag" and revealed how the policy would mean budget cuts to council-run schools.

Mr Balls said: "Not only do parents face the threat of school buildings being cancelled and teachers being cut, now the Tory leader of Kent has confirmed their school policy would mean even further cuts to existing schools."

He added: "These leading Conservative councillors with real experience of education have let the cat out of the bag and confirmed what we and educational experts have been saying all along."

Cllr Carter said the Conservatives should guard against doing anything that might encourage destructive rather than constructive competition.

"At the moment the more academies and free schools you operate, under the current academy funding arrangements, the less maintained schools would get," he said.

"Secondary schools are around £4,000 plus per pupil. If 10 per cent, 12 per cent, 15 per cent of that was taken away from maintained schools and given to free schools and academies - local authorities still have statutory functions to perform.

"They have to arrange and organise school admissions, statements for special educational needs pupils, a whole range or services that need paying for.

"That can't be taken away from us and given to free schools or academies because they don't have the statutory duty to carry out these responsibilities."

Read Cllr Carter's comments on the academies programme here.

Michael Gove, shadow Conservative education secretary, insisted Mr Carter backed the Conservative plans.

"Paul told me on the record that he is 100 per cent supportive of our proposals," he said.

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Cllr Carter recently questioned aspects of the government's school academies programme, saying he was concerned about the results, admissions arrangements and the high rate of exclusions at some.

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