Jeremy Corbyn had condemned plans to force all England’s schools to become academies as a Government move towards “asset stripping” and privatisation.
Mr Corbyn was given a standing ovation as he became the first Labour leader to address the National Union of Teachers’ (NUT) conference this afternoon.
The Labour veteran, an opponent to the Government's planned academisation programme, took to the stage, at a packed conference hall in Brighton to accuse Tories of presiding over a "crisis in our schools".
"Let's be clear - this is an ideological attack on teachers and on local and parental accountability - it was nowhere in Tory manifesto, it's something that's just been dreamt up at the last minute and stuck into the Budget," Mr Corbyn said.
"I want schools accountable to their parents and their communities - not as a process of asset-stripping our facilities to be handed over to somebody else. There is not a shred of evidence that academies improve standards."
Mr Corbyn told the conference his late mother was a maths teacher and NUT member, and drew laughs when he identified someone who he said would benefit from her teachings.
He said: "There's one or two pupils around the country who need extra tuition - one of those is George Osborne.”
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We want to see educational excellence everywhere in the country - we are protecting the schools budget in real terms and making funding fairer by introducing a new national funding formula so that areas with highest need attract the most funding.
"We're investing hundreds of millions in teacher recruitment and the vacancy rate has remained low over the last 15 years. In fact, last year we recruited 116% of our primary schools target, and the pupil teacher ratio has remained stable when compared to 2010.
"We know unnecessary workload is one of the biggest frustrations for teachers and have done more than ever to tackle this by setting up three review groups to address the key concerns raised through the workload challenge. We trust heads, governors and academy trusts to plan their staffing and make sure teachers and staff have the support they need."
Additional reporting by Press Association.
