Pupils quizzed the Prime Minister during a campaign visit to a free school in East Finchley.

David Cameron visited The Archer Academy, in Beaumont Close, with Mike Freer, Conservative candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, this afternoon.

The visit comes two weeks after an Ashcroft poll showed Labour inching ahead in the constituency.

Asked by pupils why he had chosen their school to visit, Mr Cameron said that he was a “great believer” in free schools.

He added: “Not every plan you have in government really works. This one has. I’m hoping there will be many more schools like this in the next parliament.”

He told pupils his favourite subject at school had been history, and that his teacher used to throw a block of wood at pupils if they were not paying attention – which “health and safety” would nowadays prevent.

The Prime Minister also visited an art class, and heard about plans for the school’s new campus, which opens in Stanley Road, East Finchley later this year.

Speaking about whether extending right to buy to housing association tenants would help poor families in Barnet, he said it would increase supply, and praised Barnet Council for its record of housebuilding.

He added: “The aim of this is yes to help people achieve a dream of home ownership, but to make sure we build more affordable homes for rent affordable homes to buy.”

Commenting on the recent cuts to after-school activities at Mapledown School, Mr Cameron said: “Barnet must have to make their decisions. The responsibility of government is to make sure that there’s the money available.

“Barnet Council overall gets a little bit ahead of the national average but obviously they have to make the appropriate decisions with the money they have.”

The Prime Minister also launched an attack on Labour while talking about inequality.

He said: “We’re actually getting more money out of the richest one per cent in our country than Labour did when they were in power. They put around this myth that somehow that they’re for the many, not the few.

“The fact is when they were running the economy the bankers got away with it, they kept their knighthoods, they kept their bonuses, and it was the poorest that suffered in our country with job losses, homes lost, businesses closed.”