A CONSERVATIVE re-think over its policy on grammar schools could mean more selective schools for Kent after all, it has emerged.

The policy U-turn has been welcomed by some of the county's Conservative MPs, who had bitterly denounced the original announcement that the party was abandoning its support for more grammars.

But it sparked fresh charges from others that the party was in total disarray over its education policy.

David Cameron had said a pledge to build more grammars would prove an "electoral albatross" and the party's education spokesman David Willetts said a fortnight ago that grammars did not help children from poorer backgrounds.

But with the row showing no signs of abating, Mr Willetts has now said that if population increases meant more schools were needed in exsiting selective areas, there would be no bar on those schools being grammars.

He said: "I do understand that in parts of the country where they’ve got grammar schools, as demography changes, so they [education authorities] will come forward with how their grammar school system needs to change."

That was welcomed by Thanet North MP Roger Gale, who was among the more outspoken critics of the initial announcement.

"It is extremely helpful that Mr Willetts has clarified the situation. Quite clearly, by accepting that counties like Kent with growing populations will need to maintain the balance between non-selective and selective schools, it means there will be a need to build one or more grammars."

He added: "In accepting that, you have to accept the principle that grammars do make a significant contribution to social mobility."

Maidstone and Weald MP Ann Widdecombe played down the significance of the remarks, saying that it did not represent a U-turn.

She said: "I do not think it is much of a policy shift. I have always understood that if local education authorities wanted to build new grammars, we would not stand in their way [but] that we want to make existing schools as good as they can be without necessarily replacing them with grammars.

"This whole thing has become a bit of a storm in a teacup."

But Martin Frey of Kent campaign group STEP - Stop The Eleven Plus - said the announcement had only created more confusion.

He said: "It is extraordinary that they have got themselves in such a muddle. This is about the Conservative leadership trying to placate backbenchers in places like Kent who are in open revolt."