PM vows to complete public service revolution

Tony Blair has vowed to push through his reforms to public services before he stands down as Prime Minister.

In a two-and-a-half hour interrogation by senior MPs, he offered no concessions to Labour backbenchers threatening to sink his schools shake-up when it comes before the Commons in February. He rejected his critics' claim that the changes would help middle-class rather than working-class children.

Asked if he hoped to leave a legacy of completed public service reforms, Mr Blair hoped the "essential foundations" would be put in place in this parliament and denied he wanted a "permanent revolution". He said: "I don't think it's measured by the length of time I am in office but by what is right for the country."

The Prime Minister was attending one of his regular question and answer sessions with the all-party Commons Liaison Committee. But, in a sign of the changing mood at Westminster after his defeat on the Terrorism Bill two weeks ago, two members openly questioned his shelf life.

Tony Wright, the Labour chairman of the Public Administration Committee, told him bluntly he was "a prime minister in a hurry" as he tried to complete his reforms. Edward Leigh, the Tory chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, pledged his support for the Blair reforms but asked the Prime Minister whether he should quit now because had now become "part of the problem" with so many people in his own party opposing him. "I wonder whether it is because you are so frustrated after eight years in power at the effectiveness of Whitehall delivery that you are having to ram through your 'choice' agenda?" he asked.

Mr Blair denied there was "political opposition to choice". He said: "It is better that we carry on carrying through the programme we were elected on for a third time," he said.

"Whenever you take those decisions, you cause a certain amount of turbulence and difficulty but the important thing if you are doing the right thing is to carry on doing it."

Phil Willis, a Liberal Democrat MP and former headmaster, predicted that successful schools would use parental interviews to introduce "selection by the side door" and would drive out working-class pupils.

He said the proportion of children at city academy schools receiving free dinners had already started dropping, as pupils from middle-class families took up places.

Mr Blair replied: "What they are getting in areas with city academies is for the first time in their lives the ability to go to a decent school." With regard to the free school meals, Mr Blair said the change was because more people were trying to get into the schools and the overall percentage had fallen.

"I think there are lots of people from lower-income families who are desperate to get the best for their kids and are happy to work hard to make sure their schools are better," he said.

The Prime Minister denied that his reforms would reintroduce the grant-maintained schools that Labour scrapped after winning power in 1997. "The self-governing trusts will be subject to a fair admissions policy and there will be no discriminatory funding," he said.

He reminded his critics that his administration had boosted spending and staffing in the public sector, adding that the state no longer needed to provide all services directly. "I think the single biggest danger we face is that people end up thinking we want the state to do things, just because we want the state to do things and we will be vulnerable to an argument about a big state."