Conservative Kent education chiefs have rejected claims they are putting grammar schools at risk through mergers and a policy of linking them with other schools.

It follows an attack on the education authority by the Campaign for Real Education, a group that campaigns for greater parental choice.

CRE chief Nick Seaton said Conservative-controlled KCC was pursuing mergers and federations of its 33 grammar schools because it had been seduced by the cash on offer under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

KCC recently signed a £600million contract to refurbish schools in Gravesham, Swale and Thanet. It is the first phase of what the council says will be a £1.8billion county-wide investment.

But Mr Seaton claimed the council was pushing grammars towards mergers because it feared ministers would not support its bid for BSF cash if it did not.

In an article for the political blog Conservativehome, Mr Seaton wrote that up to a third of Kent’s grammar schools were being put at risk because of KCC’s policy.

"KCC seems to have been drawn into Labour’s plans for levelling down, not up. Pupils in Kent are being disrupted by the actions of politicians and their officials who have been seduced millions of pounds from central Government’s BSF programme."

He went on to suggest that KCC’s policy was a "socialist-inspired, double-edged squeeze on some of the best schools in the state system."

But the attack drew short shrift from KCC. Cllr Mark Dance (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for children, families and education, retorted: "It is absolutely untrue.

"There is exactly the same number of grammar schools as 10 years ago; there have been no mergers or amalgamations. We do not intend to close any grammar school in Kent nor is it our intention to amalgamate any."

Kent was investing more in its grammar schools under the BSF programme than any other part of the country, he added. "This is not a strategy that puts our selective system at risk."

While there were federation plans involving five of the county’s grammar schools, all remained independent, he added.

But Mr Seaton stood by his claims saying: "Why should Conservatives help socialists have their cake and eat it, especially when it is at the expense of aspirational families and their children?"