Morris criticises 'choice' agenda

Mrs Morris has reservations about government policy

Former education secretary Estelle Morris has attacked the government's "choice" agenda on public services.

Tony Blair is expected to make parental and patient choice a key theme of Labour's general election manifesto.

But Mrs Morris, who is quitting as an MP, said choice only benefited the middle class who could play the system.

"The people who lose out from choice are the good hard-working families who we are in politics to represent," she told BBC Two's Newsnight.

Briefings culture

She added: "Choice is vitally important, but for a left-of-centre government, it has got to be choice with access. That's what marks us out from the Conservatives."

Ms Morris admitted she would be glad to speak out publicly about her reservations over Labour education policy once she had left Parliament.

She complained that a culture of off-the-record briefings by some members of the party was making politics too personalised, but denied it was fuelled by a split between the prime minister and Chancellor Gordon Brown.

Mrs Morris, a junior arts minister, announced on Tuesday she is to leave Parliament at the next election.

In a statement, the Birmingham Yardley MP said she had not lost her appetite for politics but wanted to pursue challenges outside the Commons.

The ex-education secretary resigned from the Cabinet in 2002 saying she did not feel up to the job.

But she rejoined the government last year as a more junior minister - a job she says she is willing to continue until the next general election.