Tory leader reveals childhood ambitions

Mr Duncan Smith called for more vocational schooling

Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith has told schoolchildren in Suffolk he once dreamed of becoming a top rugby player.

Mr Duncan Smith was speaking as he toured Holywells School in Ipswich, which is starting to improve after being put on special measures last year.

"I would have loved to have played international rugby," he told teenagers.

He also criticised the government's plans to get 50% of children into university, and called on striking firefighters to get back to work.

Disruptive pupils

Mr Duncan Smith said schools should offer more vocational education for less academically gifted pupils.

Some pupils, he said, were disruptive because they were not as academically capable as their classmates.

"We need to give the vocational route a push and the government doesn't do any of that at the moment.

"Indeed it seems to be rather dismissive."

Speaking about the national firefighters' strike, he said: "There is no justification to put people's lives at risk like this.

"The employers and the Fire Brigades Union should work out what they have got and what they can afford."

Mr Duncan Smith is due to travel to Cromer in Norfolk for a meeting with local party members on Thursday evening.