Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has urged the Prime Minister to listen to the views of the Conservative leader Paul Carter of KCC over forcing schools to become academies.

The issue dominated the exchanges between the two leaders at Prime Minister’s Questions today as the Labour chief sought to exploit Conservative divisions over the plan.

Kent County Council has urged the education secretary Nicky Morgan to drop the plans, saying there is no evidence that academies fare any better than local maintained schools.

Mr Carter has also spoken out against the idea in his capacity as chairman of the county council network saying:

"My concern is that the change will lead to a poorer education system operating across Kent, and more broadly England, because the value that local authorities generally provide to schools will be removed."

Mr Corbyn urged the Prime Minister to listen to the views of council leaders like Mr Carter on an issue which has been condemned by many Conservative councillors.

“Why is this costly re-organisation of schools being forced on schools already good or outstanding? Conservative Councillors and MPs don’t want this ,who does want this costly top-down reorganisation?” he said.

He went on to quote the views of Cllr Carter, saying: “If he [Cameron] wants support for his proposals he might like to pick up the phone and talk to the leaders of Hampshire, West Sussex and his own Oxfordshire county council, who are deeply concerned.”

“He might choose to listen to Cllr Carter, the chairman of the county council network, who says the changes will lead to a poorer education system.”

The clash came as Kent County Council released a letter sent to the education secretary Nicky Morgan urging a U-turn. The letter, approved by all parties, was sent by the chairman of the authority's education scrutiny committee, Cllr Richard Parry.

"There is a serious lack of evidence to support the notion that converting a school to an academy will improve standards" - Kent County Council

It says there are "significant disadvantages" to forced academisation, including the costs to councils to convert its existing schools; the ability of schools to manage conversion; the plan to remove parent governors and the lack of oversight by councillors.

Mr Parry writes: "There is a serious lack of evidence to support the notion that converting a school to an academy will improve standards."

There have been rumours of a climbdown by the government but Mr Cameron insisted that he was sticking to the plan.

One possible option is that councils themselves could set up multi-academy trusts to run schools but that too has triggered concerns

Cllr Roger Gough, KCC cabinet member for education, said it could be difficult for the council to act as both a commissioner of school places and a provider of school places.