THE Labour Group at Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) has attacked the Conservative's record on education in Monmouthshire after recent figures show Monmouthshire has the biggest gap in Wales for achieving GCSE's between pupils on free school meals compared to non-free school meal recipients.

The gap now stands at 46 per cent and in the past year figures show Monmouthshire's gap has increased by 11 per cent.

Leader of the Labour Group, Councillor Dimitri Batrouni, said: "The Tories' record on education in Monmouthshire is appalling. They have overseen the authority going into special measures, plan to cut school budgets by £3 million over the next few years, plan to cut the additional learning needs budget by £700,000 and now have supervised the worst gap in performance at GCSEs for our poorest children in Wales.

"This is what you get when the Conservatives are in charge of education.

"This is why, in an attempt to reverse this Tory record, we proposed a cap on private consultant spend in order to put money back into our schools and reverse all cuts to children with additional learning needs.

"We will support all our children and our schools to be the best they can be, we won't undermine them like the Tories."

Leader of MCC, Councillor Peter Fox, said: "Once again I am disappointed that the election fever is kicking in so early, I only wish Councillor Batrouni and his Labour group would find as much time to work with us as they do in playing to the audience in the run up to the election in May.

"The fact is young people in Monmouthshire are achieving excellent results, indeed the best results in Wales, however we recognise that there is more work to do to help those young people in receipt of free school meals to achieve more, currently this group of students are performing around the Welsh average but I confidently expect in excess of 50 per cent to be achieving the expected level this year which will put us well above any national average which is really good news.

"Sadly Councillor Batrouni and the Labour Group remain out of touch with the real position in Monmouthshire in the same way as their party is out of touch with reality in Westminster, it's a shame, but expected, that he chooses to keep looking for political soundbites."