Cameron faces Blair at first PM’s questions

David Cameron, who made his first appearance as Conservative party leader at Prime Minister’s Question Time today, has pledged support for Tony Blair’s controversial education reforms.

Mr Cameron pledged to support the reforms, which would give schools more independence from local authorities and have proved unpopular with some Labour backbenchers, but urged Mr Blair to be “bold”.

The new Tory leader also said that schools should control their own admissions, saying: “Education is one of the public services in desperate need of reform. Our aim should be to make sure all schools have these freedoms.”

However, while Mr Blair said that he welcomed this “new consensus” from the Conservatives, he said that schools would not be allowed to set their own admissions policies, because that would allow the reintroduction of selection at age 11.

However, Mr Cameron suggested that Mr Blair was “stuck in the past and told him: "I want to talk about the future… you were the future once."

Mr Cameron, who had previously expressed a wish to move away from ‘Punch and Judy style’ politics, also accused the government’s Chief Whip of Hilary Armstrong of “shouting like a child”.

Fellow Conservative MPs praised Mr Cameron’s first performance as Tory leader in the Commons, although Labour backbenchers later claimed that Mr Blair had gained the upper hand during the exchanges.

(KMcA/GB)