TRISTRAM HUNT has shone a spotlight on top Tories’ plot to run schools for profit if they win the general election.

Labour’s shadow education secretary gave a “cast-iron guarantee” at the weekend that he would never support for-profit schooling when pressed on the issue at NASUWT conference.

But he warned teachers that there was a “drum beat” towards the controversial move within the Conservative Party.

He cited “disturbing revelations” that former education secretary Michael Gove wanted to run academies and free schools for profit as a first step.

Lib Dem ministers lifted the lid on his ambitions in their “Gove files” document published in February.

Mr Gove was replaced by Nicky Morgan as Education Secretary last summer in a bid to build bridges with teachers before the election, but he is still said to influence Tory education policy.

And Mr Hunt said: “I think this is the drum beat for for-profit schools if the Conservatives were to return to power.
“Labour is absolutely clear — that would never happen under a Labour government.”

The history professor-turned-MP also won a huge cheer from almost 1,000 delegates at the Cardiff conference when he pledged to “end this government’s free-market approach to school provision” by stopping new free schools.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said teachers and parents now had a “clear choice” at the ballot box.

She said Ms Morgan’s refusal to attend the conference was another example of the Tory’s “contempt” for teachers.

And she told Mr Hunt: “I want to give you a very quick answer to how you can solve the problems of the profession: kick out this government on May 7.”

Mr Hunt also criticised the Tories for “denigrating” teachers by labelling them “the enemies of promise.”

Asked by the Star how his approach would be different, he said: “We want to move away from some of the showboating and militaristic rhetoric of the last few years.

“You can’t have real change unless you take the profession with you and the unions are a big part of that.”

National Union of Teachers leader Christine Blower said Mr Hunt’s vision was “much better than the Conservatives’.”

She welcomed Labour’s commitment to protecting the education budget and said he was “moving in the right direction on Ofsted.”