Schools will be plunged into costly legal battles if the Conservatives go ahead with plans to scrap the appeals system for children excluded from school, heads and teachers warned yesterday.

The Conservative leader, Michael Howard, will tomorrow release his party's education blueprint for the next election, which will include a pledge to abolish independent appeals panels.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads' Association, said: "My view is that this is not a sensible proposal. It is superficially attractive but I think it will lead to more parents taking schools to court.

"Nothing is final now until you get to the House of Lords and - because of that - it would seem sensible to build in at the lowest possible stage an appeals mechanism to which parents can have recourse.''