Education secretary Charles Clarke has come under fire after he vowed to "take out" failing headteachers.

In an interview with the Press Association the education secretary vowed to tackle poor teaching and school management.

"Where the issue is the head's the problem, they must not be allowed just to go along," he said. "The head must be taken out or heads of department moved."

He urged governors and local education authorities to root out staff not up to the job. "Both the governors and the LEAs have to be completely ruthless at addressing that problem," he said.

Clarke's comments were condemned as "damaging and emotive" by Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis MP.

"Talk of 'taking out' headteachers belongs more in 1920s gangland New York than in any genuine attempt to come up with improvements for our children'seducation," he said.

"Past attempts by the government to 'name and shame' achieved absolutely nothing. There are no quick fixes for the problems facing our schools."

The NUT said the government had already put in place measures to tackle teachers "who are not performing at the highest level".

A spokesman for the union said: "Charles Clarke fails to recognise the measures that have already been taken to overcoming any problems there may already be with staff."