Cameron defiant over grammars

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Saddling the party with backward-looking policies on issues like education would doom it to opposition, he warned, as he dismissed the discarded Tory aspiration for a grammar school in every town as "mythical".

There were signs that the long-running row over grammar schools was harming Mr Cameron's image among voters, with a Sunday Telegraph poll finding he was rated below Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown for competence and being a strong leader.

While Tories enjoy a five-point lead on 37% to Labour's 32%, Mr Brown was rated best Prime Minister by 45%, against 43% for Mr Cameron.

Mr Cameron's party retained their lead as the party with the best policies for schools and the NHS, but Mr Brown was seen as best on the "hard" topics of the economy, tax, and the war on terror.

The poll, taken as Mr Cameron returned from a week-long holiday in Greece, came as a third Conservative frontbencher spoke out in favour of new grammar schools in his constituency.

And a survey of 50 Tory MPs and 50 council leaders for the Telegraph found half of MPs and a large majority of councillors opposing Mr Cameron's refusal to permit selection in state education for most areas.

Former Europe spokesman Graham Brady, who quit Mr Cameron's frontbench team to fight for more grammar schools, branded the Tory policy "badly thought-out" and "absurd" today.

In an article in the News of the World, he warned that Mr Cameron and shadow education secretary David Willetts were picking a fight with "millions of ordinary working families" by turning their back on grammars.

Conservative charities spokesman Greg Clark said he would like to see more grammars in his Tunbridge Wells constituency in Kent.