Conservative conference: Tories would accelerate academies programme

Gove said: "We expect to double the number of academies currently planned. We will be on course for academies to become the norm in secondary education."

The party would allow hundreds of the best-performing comprehensives to become academies and opt out of the national curriculum. In return they will be required to partner with an underperforming school to share their innovations and practice.

Gove said: "Tony Blair became a death-bed convert to the cause of educational freedom. He set up the academy programme – a deliberate attempt to emulate the success of GM schools.

And it worked – academies used their new-found freedom to drive up standards. Since Gordon Brown took over those freedoms have been stifled and bureaucracy has crept back."

Gove also confirmed the Conservative’s intention to usher in a swathe of independent schools to replace poor performing schools, many in deprived areas.

These would be modelled on the Swedish system run by charities and parent groups.

"A society in which the poor are condemned to stay poor because of a failing education system that offers no way out is a society no Conservative can tolerate", he said.

Aside from schools reform however, other services and agencies that work with children and young people were conspicuous by their absence in Gove’s speech.