A grammar school headmaster said a General Election leaflet was "inaccurate and misleading" about the number of places given to pupils outside of Bucks - but the candidate responsible hit back by saying figures on how many students receive tutoring for the 11 Plus should be made available.

A leaflet circulated around homes in the Chesham and Amersham area on behalf of Labour party candidate Ben Davies stated that half of all pupils who had a grammar school place in the constituency came from outside the county.

Mark Fenton, the head of Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham, said this figure was wrong and called for Mr Davies to apologise.

Dr Fenton said: "I decided not to make an issue of it at the time [during the election campaign], but it's completely inaccurate and positively misleading. The public have been grievously misled by this.

"The actual figure is 16 per cent and in terms of my own school it's zero."

He said of the 490 pupils to earn places at the three grammar schools in the Chesham and Amersham constituency last year, 81 came from outside of the county - all off whom attend Chesham Grammar School.

Mr Davies said the error was "an honest mistake" - but reiterated his pre-election call for grammar schools to publish figures that show what proportion of their pupils were privately educated or privately tutored prior to passing the 11 Plus.

Whilst campaigning for election to Parliament, Mr Davies repeatedly criticised the social mix in Bucks grammar schools - arguing the system was severely biased in favour of children from wealthy backgrounds.

He said: "It's been brought to my attention that in one of my election leaflets there was an error about the proportion of students coming in from out of county - it was an honest mistake and I apologise if I inadvertently misled anyone.

"However, the error does not detract from the fundamental point - that 11 Plus tourism pushes up the pass threshold and means that children locally pay the price.

"Pupils from wealthy backgrounds have access to private coaching and independent schools. Meanwhile, bright children from lower income families are shoved to the back of the queue.

"Patchy performance elsewhere in the school system in Bucks means that clever kids from poorer backgrounds are paying a terrible price. It's time this system was examined because it currently locks in privilege and pushes away talent."