Conservative councillors warn small village schools could be at risk under plans to turn state schools into academies

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ontroversial plans to turn every state school in England into an academyhave been attacked by Tory councillors, including the politician responsible for education in David Cameron's own constituency.

Conservatives across the country have warned that small village schools could be at risk if academy chains decide they are no longer viable and have hit out at the growth of Government "diktats".

The intervention comes after George Osborne pledged in last week's Budget to force every school in the country to become and academy by 2022.

CREDIT: PA

The new proposals will end local-authority control of schools in England, a system which has been in place since it was enacted by Arthur Balfour in 1902.

Melinda Tilley, the cabinet member for education at Oxfordshire County Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It means a lot of little primary schools will be forced to go into multi-academy trusts and I just feel it's the wrong time, in the wrong place, for little primary schools to be forced into doing this.

"I'm afraid there could be a few little village schools that get lost in all of this."

Asked if she was "disappointed" by the Government, she said that was "probably putting it very mildly".

Nick Gibb CREDIT: REX FEATURES

"I'm fed up with diktats from above saying you will do this and you won't do that. This is not why I became a Conservative."

However, the schools minister Nick Gibb told the same programme that the proposals were aimed at giving "more autonomy to professionals" who would be freed from "interference from the local authority".

He said "the winning formula" of multi-academy trusts would be used to "change weaker schools" run by local authorities.

"You can't have two systems. You have to have one consistent system".

David Cameron speaks to factory staff at the Siemens Chippenham plant  CREDIT: GETTY

Roger Gough, Conservative councillor in charge of education in Kent, said there wasn't "demonstrable evidence" that there is a systemic improvement in performance and justifies an "upheaval on this scale."

Conservative Peter Edgar, from Hampshire County Council, said: "To force all schools would be ridiculously expensive and in my view the wrong thing to do and also could cause in the interim a drop in standards in all our schools."

Jeremy Corbyn is due to be the guest speaker when members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) meet at their annual spring conference in Brighton later today.

Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the Labour party CREDIT: REX

Mr Corbyn's expected attendance was kept private until his campaign team posted a note on Twitter, informing the account's more than 110,000 followers, just a few hours before the five-day event is due to officially open.

He is expected to fiercely oppose the Conservatives plans and argue that Ministers have failed to make any compelling argument for why these plans are necessary.

A Department for Education spokesman said: "To drive up standards we will encourage more schools to work together in multi-academy trusts so they share resources, staff and expertise."