Dodgy DaveCameron labelled liar over thug story
By Jan Disley 08/10/2007
David Cameron has been branded a liar after telling a story about a pupil attacking a teacher.
Delegates at last week's conference heard the Tory leader recount the tale of violence at a secondary school as he called for headteachers to be given more power to enforce discipline.
Angry school governors claim his account is not true - but Cameron insisted yesterday that it was.
At the conference he told party members he spent a couple of days helping teachers at a school in the north of England.
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And he claimed: "I stopped a boy as he was running in to his GCSE exam and I said 'What's the problem?'.
"And he said 'Well, I got completely p****d last night, I've got a hangover and I'm going to flunk this exam'. I asked a teacher about him and I was told he'd attacked a teacher before and he trashed a classroom."
Mr Cameron did not name the school but it has since been identified as Kingswood Art College, Hull, where he spent two days as a class assistant in May.
Now governors have denied the alleged violence ever took place and demanded an apology.
Anita Harrison said: "It is an appalling allegation, one he will come to regret. I've been a governor for five years and we hear about any serious breaches of discipline. It could not be more serious than attacking a teacher and trashing a classroom but nothing like that has happened."
Fellow governor Ray Drayton added: "Nothing like this has ever come before the board."
Tackled on BBC1's Andrew Marr Show, the Opposition leader insisted: "What I said to the conference is absolutely how it happened."
Kingswood head Nicole Swallow was unavailable for comment.
