Conservative leader Michael Howard promised that if he won the election parents would be able to send children to any school, state or independent, with taxpayers picking up the bill.
He said this would mean 100,000 more parents would be able to send their children to a first-choice school in the first term of a Tory government.
Also, an extra '15bn a year would be spent on schools by 2010.
This would be enough to build 260 new secondary schools.
But Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott claimed Mr Howard's move would cut '1bn out of the budget for state schools and subsidise private education.
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Stephanie Oxley, Timperley Cheshire (30/06/2004 at 22:52)