BRADFORD Council's failure to meet education targets has led to a political spat between a district MP and the man who used to oversee the department for the local authority.

Councillor Ralph Berry was in charge of education until he was moved to the portfolio for adults and children's social services last month.

Kris Hopkins, the MP for Keighley and Ilkley and a former leader of Bradford Council, fears the local authority could lose control of the district's education system following the publication of a new report highlighting failings in the last year.

In 2001 responsibility for education was taken away from Bradford Council.

It was transferred to private company, Serco, until 2011 when the Department for Education deemed the Council fit to take back the responsibility. Mr Hopkins (Con) fears a similar situation could occur if standards do not improve.

He said: "Hopefully the recent departure of Ralph Berry as education portfolio holder will make a difference, because he clearly wasn’t up to the job and presided over five years of failure.

"During my time as Council leader, the three main parties worked together to return responsibility for education to City Hall after it was taken away when Labour was last in charge.

"I now fear we are heading that way again. Without major improvements in education and skills, Bradford district will not be able to up its game. "We can’t leave a generation of children to underperform.”

Councillor Berry replied: "This is the first word about this from him in years.

"Bearing in mind I asked for the report from Professor Woods [published last year into improving Bradford schools], and that he has been silent as Early Intervention, Sure Start and Education Support Grants have been ravaged, I would also note the failure by Mr Hopkins to support the need for capital and the disaster of Ilkley being passed over [for Government funding to build new school facilities].

"Unlike Mr Hopkins, I have been making decisions like removing governors to ensure improvement.

"Requests for support on the scale of London challenged have been met by a stony silence from Mr Hopkins. In my entire period as portfolio holder, I had no contact from Mr Hopkins."

It is not the first time a Government minister has been critical of the Council's education handling.

In 2013 education secretary Michael Gove called education standards in the district "appalling" in a Parliamentary debate. In response, Cllr Berry said Mr Gove had insulted "hundreds of hard working teachers."

This prompted schools minister Lord Nash to write a letter to the Telegraph & Argus in which he referred to the Council as "deluded" over the state of education in the district.