Pauline Fraser, Newham: "Just pay teachers the money"

The vote has now been postponed to the end of the conference on Tuesday - if it is to be held at all.

The union's moderate leadership, which is opposed to strike action, will be seen as having outmanoeuvred its left-wing critics, with a series of procedural delays that meant the debate on performance pay finished before a vote could be taken.

After yesterday's angry attack on union militants from the general secretary, Doug McAvoy, it had been expected that the left would use the debate on performance pay to set the union on a more radical path of opposition to the government's pay reforms.

But before beginning discussion on whether teachers should stage their first national strike for over 30 years, the conference was drawn into a series of minor amendments and time-consuming votes which used up the time available.

'Lunacy'

In the small time available to debate a strike ballot, Mary Compton from Radnor drew loud applause with a call for teachers "to get up off our knees and take some action".

And attacking the union leadership's more limited plans for a work to rule, Bob Sulatycki, representing Kensington and Chelsea, said it was "lunacy to believe that this would prevent performance-related pay".

Nigel de Gruchy, the general secretary of the second largest union, the NASUWT, which has its annual meeting next week, said on Sunday that the NUT was dragging teachers' unions into disrepute by threatening to strike.

And he said that the NUT was being hypocritical in opposing performance pay while advising its members on how best to apply for it.

The NUT says it is simply being pragmatic, not wanting its members to lose out on something that the government is determined to impose on the profession.

Estelle Morris was heckled

The accusation that the union was contradicting itself over performance pay was also made by the School Standards Minister, Estelle Morris, who addressed the NUT conference on Saturday.

The minister said it was "madness" that the union was fighting against performance pay while at the same time advising members on how to apply for it.

Many angry teachers walked out during her speech, in which she said performance pay was the "best opportunity for a generation" for teachers to earn higher salaries.

It would see "effective" classroom teachers rewarded with an immediate rise of �2,000 and a new, higher pay scale.

The union believes teachers should all get a rise without having to prove their worth.

But its leadership argues strikes are counter-productive because they alienate parents and disrupt children's education.

Instead, the union's executive is proposing a work to rule, in which teachers would limit activities to those directly related to teaching, or preparing and marking children's work.