SIX Devon Members of Parliament – including Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris and Totnes MP Sarah Wollaston – have signed a cross-party letter to the Prime Minister demanding he sticks to his pledge to introduce a new national funding formula.

Devon remains £270 per pupil short of the national average on school funding.

The letter to Mr Cameron, signed by 111 MPs in total, says: ‘It is widely acknowledged that the existing school funding model is a muddle and that funding for individual schools with similar pupil characteristics is arbitrary and unfair.

‘As a result, schools around the country that are similar can get very different budgets and children with the same needs can receive very different levels of financial support depending on where they go to school.’

Cllr James Mclnnes, Devon County Council’s cabinet member for schools, said: ‘Devon schoolchildren remain some of the worst funded in the country despite the government’s very welcome injection of extra cash in the current financial year.

‘We’re working with our schools and parents to keep the pressure on the government to ensure it fulfils its election promise to introduce a fairer funding system.’