Backbenchers line up to criticise Gove over cancelled school project list

Gavin Barwell becomes fourth Tory MP to publicly question education secretary's proposed cuts to school building projects

Education secretary Michael Gove is facing increasing criticism from within his party over cuts to school building projects. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

The education secretary, Michael Gove, was under mounting pressure from inside the Conservative party today after another Tory MP attacked his plans to axe new school buildings.

On Monday, Gove cancelled Labour's £55bn school building programme, suspending projects for 715 new schools as part of the coalition's latest tranche of spending cuts. He told the Commons that the scheme had been hit by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy".

Since then, Gove has been attacked by four Tory MPs who have school building projects in their constituencies that have been cancelled or suspended. Gove is expected to face further criticism from MPs on Monday when he will answer questions in the Commons.

The latest Tory to publicly question the education secretary's decision was Gavin Barwell, Conservative MP for Croydon Central, who today, was seeking "urgent confirmation" that the rebuilding of the Quest Academy in his constituency would go ahead. "I am very concerned," he said. "We need urgent confirmation that the government is going to provide something for that."

His statement comes after three other Tory MPs condemned Gove for scrapping the school building programme earlier this week. Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, West Yorkshire, said he wanted to know how a decision had been reached to scrap a new building project for grammar schools in his constituency. He intends to challenge Gove with a question in the House of Commons on Monday.

Ian Liddell-Grainger, Conservative MP for Bridgwater in West Somerset, attacked plans to halt three schools in his constituency and put three others under review. He has said he will lobby David Cameron about the issue.

Gordon Henderson, Tory MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey in Kent, has written to Michael Gove to plead with him to make an exception of the Isle of Sheppey Academy, whose funding is under threat.

Ed Balls said he was asking the public accounts committee to investigate after the Department for Education made at least 25 errors on a list it published which was meant to identy which schools' projects had been halted. Hundreds of schools were informed their projects had been spared when in fact they had been cancelled.

Balls said: "Parents and teachers no longer have any confidence in these error-strewn lists. This looks like a totally arbitrary decision-making process, with no clear criteria being used to decide which schools are safe and which will go ahead."