Cameron escalates Tory Grammar School War...

David Cameron has once again failed to shut down public criticism from his own ranks over his climb-down on Grammar Schools.

This morning, Tory Central Office briefed journalists that his Europe spokesman Graham Brady had been severely reprimanded for speaking out against Cameron's ideological attack on Grammar Schools.

Brady, himself a former Grammar School boy, has been told in no uncertain terms to mind his own business and stick to his Europe brief.

Sources close to old-Etonian Cameron are also making it known that Brady faces the sack in next month’s Tory reshuffle. They judge his public criticism of Cameron's cave-in over Labour’s record on education to be treachery.

But if Cameron hoped tough talk would put a lid on discontent within his own Party, he has achieved the opposite effect.

Senior Tory Nigel Evans responded by immediately appearing on the BBC Today programme to launch an attack on the way Brady has been treated for airing his views. And for good measure, Evans made another strong defence of Grammar Schools.

He said:

Graham would not have been doing his job if he had not stepped in and defended the grammar schools.

Tory blogger Ian Dale says the way Conservative Central Office has treated Brady is 'tantamount to encouraging him to fall on his sword'.