A Tory councillor defects to Labour over cuts to the government’s schools building programme, saying she was “ashamed to be a Conservative”.

The coalition government has turned down the idea of a graduate tax to pay for university fees, according to senior Conservative sources.

Michael Gove, the education secretary, is set to postpone plans to rebuild more than 700 schools across Conservative constituencies.

The Oxford University Conservative Association female speaker was told to “go back to washing the dishes”, witnesses claim.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb has questioned the value of PGCEs from “rubbish” universities, saying he would rather have unqualified graduates from Oxford or Cambridge teaching in schools.