Gordon Brown repeated his pledge to raise education investment

Speaking of the support he had from his parents, he told the Labour conference he had also seen talented people who had not had the chance to flourish.

He said the country had a history of wasting the potential of millions of people.

He had joined the party out of faith that people should have opportunities to realise their potential, he said.

The chancellor said globalisation meant raw materials, capital investment and technology could be sourced from anywhere in the world.

"But you cannot buy from elsewhere what in the global economy you need most: the skills and the creativity of all our people - and that means that in education we must aim to be number one," Mr Brown said.

"And as a country of 60 million people competing with countries more than 10 times our size, we cannot afford to waste the talents of anyone."

Investment

So "aspiration and excellence" would be at the heart of Labour's next reforms in education.

"But to make all this happen we cannot tolerate second best investment in our schools," said - repeating his Budget pledge to raise annual funding for state school pupils from �5,500 a head to �8,000.

As before, he did not say when this would happen.

But he added: "And I make this challenge to all parties - if you believe, like us, in equal opportunities in education, support my priority for the future: invest in education first."

Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the CMU group of new universities, welcomed this.

"Britain still spends just 1.1% of national income on higher education compared to 2.6% in the US and an EU average of 1.2%," she said.

"So this commitment needs to be matched by serious investment in higher education if the opportunities to develop potential which the chancellor clearly values are to be funded."