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The National Union of Teachers (NUT) urged Labour yesterday not to enter a "bidding war" with the Tories to prove who can be the toughest on teachers.
NUT deputy leader Kevin Courtney reserved his verdict on shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt's plans to license teachers until details are revealed on Wednesday.
But he warned Mr Hunt that the "extremely aggressive" tone of reports of his announcement could reverse growing support for Labour among teachers.
The party gave its plans to test teacher's competence exclusively to the Times newspaper and BBC political editor Nick Robinson on Friday.
Mr Hunt told the BBC: "If you're not a motivated teacher - passionate about your subject, passionate about being in the classroom - then you shouldn't really be in this profession."
But Mr Courtney told the Star: "The worry is that it looks like Labour is entering into a sort of bidding war with the Tories about how tough they can be with teachers.
"We do want to examine with them precisely what they mean by it because none of us knows and at the moment it's spin. The tone that you get from them doesn't sound like it's going to be positive.
"In which case there will be complete opposition to it. But we want to talk through whether they had any positive intentions for it.
"If they'd given it to the Morning Star as a way of increasing debate within the teaching profession, they'd have got a different reaction."
Mr Hunt's announcement comes after a recent YouGov poll for the union that showed 57 per cent of teachers plan to vote Labour at the next general election compared with just 32 per cent in 2010.
Fellow teaching union NASUWT leader Chris Keates said the restoration of qualified teacher status and an entitlement to professional development are "important preconditions" to her union's support for Mr Hunt's plans.
But she also warned that tone of debate about teaching standards has been "hijacked" and risked further "demoralising" teachers.
"No group of workers, least of all teachers, deserves to be treated in this way," she said.
