DOWNING STREET’S “pernicious” austerity cuts have left England’s schools and colleges “at breaking point,” National Education Union (NEU) president Louise Atkinson warned today.

Opening the union’s annual conference in Harrogate, the primary school teacher demanded that Tory ministers prioritise “more education funding, a fairer, more valid accountability system and an end to child poverty.”

This year’s gathering could be the NEU’s “most important yet,” Ms Atkinson suggested, after the union confirmed that its members had overwhelmingly rejected the government’s latest largely unfunded and below-inflation pay offer.