MPs approve Academies Bill

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The coalition government's flagship Academies Bill was passed in the Commons last night, despite six Lib Dem MPs voting for an amendment.

MPs approved the legislation, which will allow schools to opt out of local council control as early as September, is now due to receive Royal Assent today.

The bill was passed by 17 votes to 225, government majority 92, despite accusations it would lead to a "two-tier" education system and would damage comprehensive schooling.

In the largest rebellion since forming the coalition government, 6 Liberal Democrats joined Labour MPs in accusing the government of rushing through legislation.

The rebels – whose amendment was defeated by 77 votes – were Annette Brooke, Andrew George, Mike Hancock, John Leech, John Pugh and David Ward.

Pugh, a former teacher, warned that supporting "inconsistency and duff argument" in the bill would not help the coalition.

He called for the bill to be changed so that if a school governor objected to it becoming an academy all parents of pupils would be balloted over the change.

Schools minister Nick Gibb said the legislation would "grant greater autonomy to individual schools, give more freedom to teachers and inject a new level of dynamism into a programme that has been proven to raise standards for all children".

He said: "This Bill offers all schools the opportunity to acquire the kind of professional freedoms that have proved so successful, not only in the independent sector, but also in the city technology colleges and in the academies."

However, shadow education secretary Ed Balls said he felt the changes would lead to a "social apartheid" in education, describing it as "the most profoundly unfair piece of social engineering in this generation.

Balls added: "This Bill will create an unfair and two-tier education system in this country, with gross unfairness in funding, standards not rising but falling, fairness and social cohesion to be undermined."

Writing in the Guardian, former education secretary Estelle Morris has said important questions remain unanswered on the legislation.

"Any new government will want to stamp its mark on events and be seen to be getting on with things, but the boundary between that and arrogance is a fine line, and there is a feeling that the democratic process is being taken for granted.

"My argument isn't that there are no answers, but that the government has stopped listening to the debate about what the answers might be."

The bill will now go to the Lords today before becoming law, on the last day on which Parliament is sitting before the summer recess.

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