'Education will suffer with Adonis reshuffle'

Senior Tory Michael Gove today raised fears that the integrity of Labour's education reforms could suffer after the replacement of Lord Adonis as Schools Minister.

Shadow children's secretary Mr Gove praised the Blairite peer who has been a driving force behind giving schools greater freedoms.

"Everyone who believes in the integrity of the academies programme and the reform agenda in education will be disturbed to hear that Ed Balls has kicked Andrew Adonis out of the education department," he said.

"The fact Lord Adonis has been moved from his post only emphasises how this reshuffle is about rewarding cronies and not about governing in the national interest.

"We will continue to ensure that all Lord Adonis's achievements are protected from factional infighting."

The peer, who has been wooed by the Tories as a potential defector and has now been moved to the transport department, is seen as more enthusiastic about the academies' programme than Children's Secretary Ed Balls.

But Lord Adonis denied that he had been axed.

He said: "I told the Prime Minister in the summer that I felt it was time for me to take on a new challenge, and I am delighted to be given this great opportunity as Minister of State for Transport."

Tony Blair's biographer Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College in Berkshire, has criticised Labour's education strategy.

In a report for thinktank Policy Exchange, he called for all schools to be made independent and freed from town hall controls.

"State schooling, with schools run from central government, has been a terrible failure and the children who have lost out are those from the state sector," he said.

"In the last 10 years, we have seen a doubling of money for state education yet the improvement in results has been just nine per cent."