A ROW blew up today over teacher numbers among parties hoping to run Suffolk County Council.A Conservative leaflet claimed that the number of teachers employed in Suffolk had fallen by 823 since the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration took power at County Hall in 1993.

A ROW blew up today over teacher numbers among parties hoping to run Suffolk County Council.

A Conservative leaflet claimed that the number of teachers employed in Suffolk had fallen by 823 since the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration took power at County Hall in 1993.

However Labour council leader Bryony Rudkin hit back claiming the figures were wrong - and that the number of teachers in the county had gone up by 717 over the last 12 years.

She demanded that the Conservatives should scrap the leaflets which have been distributed in Felixstowe and part of Ipswich - and amend the figure which is prominently displayed on the Tories' website.

She said: “These leaflets are deceitful and the claims on teacher numbers could not be further from the truth.

“This information is utterly misleading. As usual, the Conservatives have got their sums wrong and are deceiving the electorate in the process.”

Conservative leader Jeremy Pembroke said the figure quoted had been given to his group by the Labour-led administration.

He said: “We have been given that figure by the administration and have been quoting it for some time. Why have they waited until now to say this - after all they gave it to us in the first place!

“It doesn't surprise me that they don't know how many teachers they have, when they came to move from County Hall to Endeavour House they didn't know how many people would be involved in the move. It seems they can't count people.”