Damian Green has unveiled Conservative plans to give parents more choice over the schools attended by their children.

The shadow education secretary said that a new system of education "passports" would see parents given funding to choose which school they wish to send their children to.

To begin with the Better Schools Passports would be introduced in inner cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool before being rolled out across the country.

The Tories estimate the policy would initially cost £400 million a year to implement, but would end Labour's "betrayal" of teachers, parents and pupils.

The shadow education secretary said the passports would "define new opportunities that will transform our education system".

"Quite simply, these passports will give the money that the state spends on their child's education to the parents, and let the parents decide in which school it should be spent," Green said.

"It will offer a radical extension of school choice. It will allow all children to aspire to an excellent education.

"We will start in the inner cities, where the problems are worst."

Setting out a vision in which parents and other groups are able to establish new schools to meet their needs, Green said that grammar schools would also have a role to play.

"Under this scheme we will see new grammar schools opening for the first time in a generation. They will provide a ladder out of deprivation for thousands of children, just like they used to," said Green.

And in contrast to the Conservative attacks on the teaching establishment seen under John Major's administration, Green said that he did not believe teachers were to blame for any current education failures.

Expanding on the new Tory philosophy on seeking to empower front line staff, Green said minister's had "simply failed to trust" teachers.

Green also pledged that the first education bill of a future Conservative government would scrap tuition fees for university students.

"Under a Conservative government entry to university will be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay," he said.

"So take this simple message with you out of this hall and onto every doorstep in the country - under a Conservative government families with children at university will face thousands of pounds less debt."