PM Marks First 100 Days With Academies Pledge

David Cameron has marked the 100-day anniversary of the first majority Conservative government since 1997 with a promise that all schools will be given the opportunity to convert to academy status.

The Prime Minister has outlined a promise to expand on a manifesto pledge to convert failing and coasting schools into academies.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Cameron said his Government would deliver "real social mobility" and promised to "not waste a second in getting on with the job".

He said the Government would recruit more academy sponsors and support head teachers in allowing thousands more schools to move away from council control.

At the moment, while planned legislation will convert failing schools, successful schools have to apply to become academies.

Thousands have done so since Mr Cameron took office in 2010.

The PM has placed the academies pledge at the heart of his "One Nation" vision for the country, and said the Conservatives would press ahead with public sector reform as Labour squabbled over its future.

Mr Cameron said his Government's "central task" would be to "finish" turning around the economy.

He also said increasing defence spending and committing to international aid would contribute to the "hard-headed realism" needed to confront Britain's global challenges.

But the PM's record since May's shock general election victory has come in for criticism.

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NHS reforms have been attacked by the British Medical Association (BMA), which claims the Tories are chasing headlines rather than trying to fix problems.

Trade union leaders said the Conservative's first 100 days have been disastrous for workers' rights.

The BMA said ministers have failed to say how they will plug a £22bn black hole in NHS finances, while promising seven-day services without setting out how this will happen.

BMA chair Mark Porter hit out at the Government for "attacking doctors' professionalism" in an apparent reference to claims about doctors failing to work weekends and demoralising other healthcare workers by freezing their pay for four years.

Dr Porter said: "When it comes to the NHS, to describe the government's performance over its first 100 days as a disappointment would be a gross understatement."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said the Government is intent on tipping the balance too far in favour of employers, with protests expected over the coming months.

"This Government has set its sights firmly on undermining the right to strike with the publication of the Trade Union Bill," she said.