Shephard takes on Blair over nursery education

RAISING the political stakes over education, Gillian Shephard, the newly-appointed Secretary of State, is seeking an increase in her budget from the Treasury to fulfil a promise by John Major of nursery school places or child care for all.

Mrs Shephard, given the task by the Prime Minister of sorting out the problems in education left by John Patten, has told colleagues: 'I am going to make it work. But if you add something, you need more money.'

As Labour prepares to publish its own education plans tomorrow, Mrs Shephard has told officials to give priority to ideas for three- and four- year-olds, after slow progress by Mr Patten.

Education Department sources said last night that Mrs Shephard believes nursery education has a powerful influence on child development, as well as helping more women to go to work.

Labour will seek to match the Tory pledge in its policy document, with a commitment to nursery education for all, but Labour sources said that - after an internal row - there would be no pledge to achieve it within the lifetime of a parliament.

Tony Blair yesterday emphasised his commitment to nursery provision in an interview for the Walden programme. The Labour leader also went further than before in jettisoning the baggage of the left by emphasising family values.

He said: 'I think we've got to move beyond those old arguments where from a left-of- centre perspective, people didn't understand that, in a sense, when we talk about society and community, the family is where it begins.'

Mr Blair bluntly said he believed it was wrong for women to choose to have children if they did not have a stable relationship.

'If someone's making the choice to bring up a child as a single parent, I'm very surprised at that. The vast majority of single parents do not choose to be single parents . . . If they do, I personally don't agree with them in doing that,' said Mr Blair, a committed Christian and father of three children.

'Rather than stigmatising single parents, I would like to see a situation which those single parents are able to bring up their kids and, for example, go out and earn a decent living. But if what you're saying to me is, do I believe that it is best that kids are brought up in a normal, stable family, the answer to that is, yes, I do believe that.'

On Europe, the Labour leader refused to rule in or rule out the possibility of

a referendum on a single

currency.

He was attacked for 'oil- smooth platitudes' by Michael Heseltine, the President of the Board of Trade, who said Labour would 'sell out' to the trade unions in two policy documents this week - the Post Office workers and teachers.

The education policy paper proposes scrapping grant- maintained schools, and bringing schools back under democratic control, but with a strong say for parents. The A-level exam would be replaced by a general certificate of further education.

Mrs Shephard said: 'Tony Blair is using the language of the 1990s in order to reaffirm his party's commitment to the policies of the 1960s and 1970s. If these proposals are as leaked, they are all about reducing standards, wiping out choice.'