By Sean Coughlan BBC News Online at the NUT conference, Harrogate

Tim Yeo received applause from teachers

Education spokesman, Tim Yeo, suggested that schools might not be allowed to give priority to pupils living near to the school.

Mr Yeo said it was unfair that affluent parents could take places at good schools by buying houses nearby.

"We aim to give to the many the privileges now only bought by a few."

Mr Yeo addressed the National Union of Teachers' annual conference on Sunday, where his promise to match and increase the current level of school spending was well received by teachers.

Radical plan

But speaking to journalists later, and explaining his party's "pupil passport" policy, he appeared to propose that proximity to a school should no longer be grounds for determining admission.

I want all parents to have the kind of choice which at present is only available to those who can afford to choose where they live Tim Yeo, Conservative education spokesman

Asked directly whether schools would be prevented from applying the proximity rule, Mr Yeo said: "Yes."

"The whole essence of this policy is that we no longer want schools in expensive areas to exclude people from poor areas merely because they don't live nearby."

At present, parents can in theory apply to any school for a place for their child.

But popular, heavily over-subscribed schools often allocate places by giving priority to those living nearest, as well as other criteria such as whether a brother or sister is at the school.

Despite this there are already London boroughs in which 40% of the pupils travel to schools in other boroughs - as families seek better places than those available locally.

Mr Yeo's suggestion that schools could be prevented from using proximity to a school to determine places would mean that popular schools would have to find other ways to choose from hundreds of families seeking a few dozen places.

'Names out of a hat'

Doug McAvoy, NUT general secretary, suggested that headteachers would have to "pull names out of a hat".

Mr McAvoy said that it raised the prospect of people who had homes beside good schools having to drive their children to less good schools that could be miles away.

"Parents are not going to like that," said Mr McAvoy.

And in particular middle class parents who have taken out huge mortgages to get near to a desirable school are unlikely to be keen on such a scheme.

But Mr Yeo appeared to contradict what would be a highly controversial proposal by also saying that schools would be allowed to decide their own admission rules.

That would mean schools being able to continue using distance from the school as grounds for admission - which would mean that better-off parents could still buy into catchment areas.

Mr Yeo emphasised that the pupil passport proposals were about expanding choice, particularly for families living in deprived areas.

"I want all parents to have the kind of choice which at present is only available to those who can afford to choose where they live," he said.