LABOUR have taken their campaign on school funding to the gates of Oakhurst Primary, a move that has been criticised by a number of parents.

Party activists stood outside the school handing out leaflets on one evening last week.

The leaflets - which used figures from the schoolcuts.org.uk website - claimed that “under the Conservatives, Swindon’s schools are set to be cut by £4.5m by 2020”, adding that Oakhurst was one of the schools set to be affected.

But one parent, who asked not to be named, said he was shocked to find political campaigners outside the gates.

He said: “What concerned me most was that my son, who was initially curious, then became concerned about his school and why the leaflets suggested it wasn’t good enough or that it would fall into trouble.

“I don’t mind political campaigning when people come to your door but whatever your political views it should be kept away from the school gates.”

Staff at Oakhurst said they had no power to ask the campaigners to move on as they were on public land.

“I would rather they weren’t at the gates of the school,” said supporting headteacher Sue Smith. “But as long as they aren’t harming anyone or doing anything wrong, there isn’t anything we can do.”

North Swindon MP, Justin Tomlinson, said his office had also received complaints, including from one person who believed his team were involved.

He urged Labour supporters to keep their campaigning on the doorstep rather than at the gates of primary schools.

Justin also took issue with the website being used to source the funding figures quoted on the leaflets.

“The union-run school cuts website where Labour are getting their figures from is fundamentally misleading and dishonest,” he alleged.

“It uses historic figures and does not reflect the new fairer funding formula which delivers the biggest improvement in the school funding system for decades; replacing Labour’s outdated system which saw Swindon schools lose out.

“It also doesn’t take into account the additional £1.3bn we are investing in schools. Locally this means an increase in funding worth £66.2m to North Swindon schools as well as an extra £4.3m in transitional funding.

“It is absolutely shameful that the Labour Party are spreading mistruths at the school gates in order to make political gains.”

But Kate Linnegar, who organised the school campaign for Labour in North Swindon, defended the decision to take the approach.

“We can all manipulate figures,” said Kate. “The £1.3bn doesn’t even catch up with the cuts that have been made to schools since 2010.

“I’ve spoken to a headteacher in North Swindon who says there is no money left to update IT systems or for music classes.

“But more importantly, the targeted mental health service for specialist practioners has been cut at his school by 75 per cent.

“The visit to Oakhurst came about because of a conversation on the doorstep with a mother who had noticed the impact of cuts at that school - we wanted to let other parents know too and going to the school is a way to do that.

“We should absolutely be campaigning in new and different ways, trying things that haven’t been done before, it’s the only way we will get more people engaged in politics.”