'Abuse paranoia' damages children

Boris Johnson said the vetting culture was "out of control"

The "hysteria" surrounding fears over child abuse is damaging boys' education, warned Boris Johnson.

The Conservative education spokesman said that fears over paedophilia had stopped men entering teaching - depriving boys of male role models.

He questioned the culture in which parents needed to have criminal checks to travel with their children on a school bus to a sports game.

The culture of such criminal vetting was "out of control," he said.

Speaking at a conference for independent schools, Mr Johnson said that he was "vehemently anti-paedophile".

'Hysterical'

"But what I worry about is that we get so hysterical about the slightest suggestion of contact between male teachers and their charges, and all the enormous health and safety guidance.

"If I wanted to go and support my kid's rugby team on a coach to Bath we all have to have Criminal Records Bureau checks - the parents, the mums. The whole CRB culture is out of control," he said.

Such an exaggerated fear over abuse was discouraging some men from becoming teachers - and he warned that "we need to turn down the hysteria".

As a consequence, he said that boys were losing out by not having enough male teachers, particularly in primary schools.

"We have got to stop saying male and female teachers are interchangeable. It is vital to provide role models for boys," he said.