Andrew Adonis, Labour's Schools Minister, responding to Michael Gove's speech at Tory party conference, said:
 
"Michael Gove calls for 'straight talk' but it's time the Tories came clean about the true cost of their Swedish model. He needs to tell us what he would cut to pay for these 5,000 schools. Until he can answer this question, their "free" schools are just fantasy schools compared to our 1,200 real academies and new or rebuilt schools nationwide.
 
"Labour has set up more than 130 new academies, built or rebuilt more than 1,200 schools, and employed 40,000 extra teachers, raising standards nationwide.

"Nearly 300 extra academies are also planned and funded, and we are supporting parents who want to set up their own schools, creating a new generation of co-operative trust schools.
 
"When the Tories first proposed a few hundred new "Swedish style" schools they conceded they would have to cut £4.5 billion from our school building programme to pay for the capital costs. But the 5,000 schools the Tories are now talking about would cost many billions more.  

"Where is this money going to come from and how are they going to deal with the impact on existing schools?"