Members of Britain's second biggest teaching union have demanded a change in the law to allow them to sue pupils for compensation if they make false allegations of physical or sexual abuse.

Delegates at the NASUWT conference said yesterday that allegations destroy teachers' careers, marriages and lives, yet children were never punished for making up damaging accusations.

Meanwhile, in his speech to conference yesterday, education secretary Charles Clarke said he stood by his decision not to address the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers.

He said that he had instead spent Easter Sunday "on the prom at Lowestoft, eating fish and chips and playing mini golf".