A multi-million pound development programme for secondary schools across Thanet could be under threat from a Conservative government.

South Thanet MP Dr Stephen Ladyman has warned that Tory plans to cut £4.5bn from the Building Schools for the Future Programme would be devastating to the district.

He said: "Building Schools for the Future is a £42bn project to rebuild and renovate every secondary school in the country, and Thanet and Dover are at the forefront of the project.

"Kent has 122 schools out of its 155 schools earmarked for rebuilding and this is by a long way the biggest programme in the country.

"That means, if the Tories won power and cut the programme in the way they say, then the axe would have to fall most heavily on Kent's plans."

Dr Ladyman said that in particular, plans to rebuild Hereson, Charles Dickens, Chatham House and Clarendon House would be under immediate threat, and that plans to rebuild Dane Court and St Georges would never get off the starting block.

Labour's Minister for Schools and Learners, Jim Knight, said of The Conservative's proposals: "The plans would mean that one in seven secondary school that Labour wanted to rebuild or refurbish would no longer happen, and 360 school rebuilding projects - out of a total of 2,527 - would face the axe.

"In each local authority affected the Tories need to end the uncertainty and say now which schools would no longer be rebuilt."