Gove defends handling of school building cuts

Education Secretary Michael Gove faced a grilling in the Commons over his handling of the decision to axe Labour's £55 billion school building programme.

He was told there is "widespread anger" among MPs after the Government released a fifth list of schools hit by the axed Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Shadow education secretary Ed Balls claimed the new list includes 20 schools more than a week ago, and still contains errors.

Mr Gove has faced growing pressure from MPs - including from within his own party - after incorrect information was released following his decision to scrap the scheme.

He was forced to apologise to the Commons last week after it emerged that an initial list of 715 affected projects was strewn with errors - many schools believed to have escaped the axe later learned their re-building projects would be affected.

During a tense exchange at Commons question time on Monday afternoon Mr Balls pushed Mr Gove on whether the Education Secretary had been told by Government officials not to publish the list of schools affected by the BSF cancellation.