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Education and Employment and the Treasury emerged in a leaked confidential Whitehall paper last week.

The draft paper prepared for Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education and Employment, warned that higher and further education expansion and student support is one area where the Tories are politically exposed.

"Any sudden reduction in the quantity of HE or its cost to individuals would affect a whole segment of middle-class youngsters, losing both their votes and those of their parents: stopping the growth of the dynamic FE sector would also be very difficult to defend," it said.

The paper also pinpoints examinations and qualifications, teacher training, education and training for 14 to 19-year-olds, and "lifetime learning" as long-term strategic areas which must be worked on.