FREE schools in the pipeline for Swindon will still go ahead - but will be the last - if Labour get into power, said the party’s spokesman on education.

Tristram Hunt was campaigning in the town yesterday and said new schools should be decided locally rather than in London.

Last month, the Government announced two free-school bids, one in North and the other in Central Swindon, had been successful, but Labour has been critical of the system, which they say means money goes to the wrong places.

However, the Conservatives say the two new schools will meet the necessary demand within the town.

Mr Hunt joined Labour’s South Swindon candidate Anne Snelgrove to meet headteachers, pupils and parents on Tuesday afternoon.

He said: “When we look at free schools across the country they are often being built in places where there’s no shortage of places so it means communities like Swindon are often being cheated from the funds they need for new primary places.

“We are also not convinced they are raising standards as effectively as we would want. We are committed to those free schools which are open and in the pipeline but we won’t go any further with the programme.

“What a Labour government would do is devolve that decision making to a director of school-standards here in Swindon and the surrounding areas and we’ll have an open and public competition as to what kind of school Swindon thinks it needs. This will be an open and transparent conversation with innovation at the heart of it.”

Mrs Snelgrove agreed with Mr Hunt and said the school already agreed for South Swindon was not needed.

She said: “The free system is a very bureaucratic way of delivering new school places into a place like Swindon. Everything has to be managed from London.

“Why should the Secretary of State for Education have control over every school place in the country? It should be down to local authorities like Swindon to discern where the school places should go. 

“I am not convinced we need two new secondary schools, with one in the south of Swindon. There are vacant places in many of our secondary schools and we need to fill those before we bring in new schools which might undermine the existing schools.”

Conservative Robert Buckland, who is standing for re-election in South Swindon, said the school was needed to fill demand for houses soon to be built in areas such as Wichelstowe.

“I resolutely support the free school system. It is an excellent way of bringing new schools based in the community to help fill demand,” he said.

“I would expect a strong local representative to support a school which will provide the places needed in the next decade.”

“Labour’s approach risks causing chaos to secondary school places for years to come. The new free school that will be built in South Swindon in a few years time takes into account that there will be more children who will need to go to a local school.”

UKIP supports the principle of free schools that are open to the whole community and uphold British values, while the Liberal Democrats have said they they will give schools the resources to absorb 400,000 new pupils in the coming years.

Elsewhere, the Green Party has said it will provide local authorities with the funding needed to decide places locally.