JOHN PRESCOTT has reacted furiously to government plans to be unveiled this week that propose a radical overhaul of secondary education in England.

At two cabinet meetings last week the deputy prime minister clashed with Tony Blair over a white paper that will wrestle control of secondary schools away from local education authorities (LEAs).

The government envisages a new generation of schools run by independent charitable trusts with the power to set their own selection criteria, curriculums and teaching methods.

Prescott told cabinet colleagues in typically blunt language that he feared the new system would discriminate against the poor by favouring the middle classes and was a reversal of Labour’s comprehensive ideal.

He voiced dismay that the new white paper was promoting a “public school ethos” that he said should not be celebrated.

He added that Labour already had a chequered record in this area and queried whether the 17 new city academies set up by Blair outside LEA control since 1997 had raised standards.

“Prescott thinks the white paper will create elite schools at the expense of others,” a cabinet source said yesterday.

Under plans to be unveiled on Tuesday, LEAs will be stripped of their power to open schools and all existing schools will be encouraged to opt out of LEA control and become independent educational trusts.

The white paper will propose that local accountability be maintained by the creation of elected “parent councils” that would have the power to influence school policy and call in government inspectors. Under the plans, schools that opted out would be expected to group together in charitable trusts run by private companies, churches or even private schools.

This way resources could be shared and places for children of all abilities provided, while still allowing for selection and streaming within individual schools.

“Blair is keen to keep middle-class families in the state sector by promising them a choice of schools that specialise in particular subjects and are run on similar lines to the private sector,” a source said last week.

“Children will be expected to travel further to school in some cases, but the white paper will promise subsidised fares.”

Prescott, who has long been the representative in cabinet of Labour’s traditional rank and file, is understood to remain highly critical of the plans.

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