Labour yesterday accused Education Secretary Michael Gove of freeing schools from all forms of accountability except to himself and pledged to abolish his “Kafkaesque” reforms.

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt and former education secretary David Blunkett said that contracts binding some schools to Mr Gove, but leaving them outside local scrutiny, made a mockery of the coalition’s localism policy.

The pair made the claim in their new in-depth report on schools reform.