TORY MPs will set out today the terms of their support for Tony Blair’s flagship school reforms in a confrontation with Labour backbenchers who want to water down the Prime Minister’s vision.

Without the support of the Conservatives when the Bill is put before the Commons, Mr Blair risks losing the legislation and ultimately his premiership.

Conservatives on the committee of MPs reviewing the Education White Paper say that they will go into battle for the principles of Mr Blair’s plans to give more autonomy to every school. In doing so they will bring into sharp focus the dilemma facing Mr Blair: whether to keep to his radical plans, which they support, or to try to win round more of his own MPs by rejecting Tory demands.

Critics, who include John Prescott, the deputy Prime Minister, and Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, fear that the reforms will set schools against each other and lead to a form of covert selection, where the poorest are worse off. Over the weekend Alan Johnson, the Trade and Industry Secretary, hinted at concessions but said that the Government was not prepared to compromise over the fundamental principles.

The Tory MPs are pushing for a series of changes to a report from the Labour-dominated Education Select Committee, which is widely expected to form the basis of a compromise between Downing Street and about 100 Labour rebels over the plans. Mr Blair is staring at defeat thanks to his own backbenchers unless he curtails plans to make every school responsible for its own admissions.

A leaked draft of the committee’s report recommended reining back plans for new “trust schools” and giving local authorities more powers over education instead. Today the committee will finalise its verdict after a private meeting to debate about 30 Tory amendments brought by Rob Wilson, the MP for Reading East.

One of the amendments is understood to call for an obligation on local authorities to promote trust schools. Another is likely to back the White Paper’s suggestion that there should be no more local authority-run community schools.

The amendments are likely to highlight a dispute between Conservatives and the Labour rebels over the role that local authorities should have in education. The draft report is understood to say that local authorities can be both commissioners and providers of schooling. The Conservatives believe that this is “incoherent” and they will seek to restrict the role of local authorities in the committee’s final report, due to be published on Thursday.

The Tory strategy today is a clear sign to Mr Blair that the party’s support for his plans for a modern state-school system is conditional on keeping their radical flavour. If the Tories fail to sway the committee, they are set to publish their own minority report which, they say, will echo Mr Blair’s proposals more faithfully.

Nadine Dorries, another Tory MP on the committee, said: “The White Paper does not go far enough because it keeps the hands of the local education authorities round the throats of schools. Labour backbenchers must realise that in time, the next step will be the complete removal of local authority control.”

Under the White Paper plans, trust schools would have control over admissions, budgets, staffing and land. In similar fashion to the 900 or so foundation or voluntary-aided schools, they will be run by a charity, university, business or another school.

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