The battle between the government and Britain's biggest teaching union intensified yesterday with the National Union of Teachers promising more strike action at their conference in Harrogate

NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy promised to show ministers some "old time religion" as he laid into their refusal to attend the conference and produced leaked evidence showing guidance which said civil servants should freeze out the radical teachers' body.

Militant delegates yesterday secured an even stronger motion against the government's classroom workload agreement than the leadership had recommended.