EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove was last night facing growing discontent within the coalition parties over his decision to axe Labour’s £55bn school building programme.

A number of Tory backbenchers and Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes have expressed concerns about the situation, which led to the cancellation of more than 700 school building projects.

Mr Gove was also facing questions over allegations he ignored the advice of officials in publishing an error-strewn list of the schools affected.

The Department for Education flatly rejected the claim, but Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls last night wrote to Mr Gove asking him to clarify the situation ahead of a scheduled Commons appearance today.

The political storm began when Mr Gove announced the end of Labour’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme last week.

Anger deepened after it then emerged that a list of 715 affected projects was strewn with errors, so that many schools thought they had escaped the axe only to learn otherwise later. Mr Gove was forced to apologise to the Commons.

In his letter, Mr Balls wrote: “I urge you to withdraw all these error-strewn lists and think again.”

Mr Hughes, who is outside the Government but an influential Lib Dem figure, warned Mr Gove that it would be “nonsense” to spend money on flagship new free schools if local people preferred to refurbish existing buildings.

Mr Gove insisted the Government would “continue to invest in school buildings” despite ending the BSF programme.

Mr Balls’ letter followed a Sunday Telegraph report that the Education Secretary was advised to simply announce he was axing the programme and say that he would consult local authorities. Officials were said to have told him that a definitive list of projects affected could not be finalised so quickly.

However, a Department for Education spokesman said: “The Sunday Telegraph is wrong.”

■ More than 70 school projects in the North-East were cancelled as a result of the announcement last week. Decisions on a further seven academies and other schools will be made on a case-by-case basis.