Labour MPs are calling for the crisis-ridden University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) to hand back control of its seven schools to the Department for Education.

The hard-hitting letter to university Vice Chancellor Professor Tim Wheeler comes after UCAT revealed job losses are on the agenda across all its schools in Cheshire and Staffordshire due to a £3m deficit.

It has been signed by Chester MP Chris Matheson , Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders , Weaver Vale MP Mike Amesbury and Stoke-on-Trent North MP Ruth Smeeth.

Weaver Vale MP Mike Amesbury has signed the letter.

University Church Free School in Union Street, Chester , could lose two support staff.

Worst hit is the University Church of England Academy (UCEA) in Ellesmere Port where affected staff could include 9.63 (full time equivalent) teachers and 5.8 FTE support staff.

The MPs ‘no longer have confidence in the university’ because the situation appears to be worsening rather than improving.

For example, the Ellesmere Port academy has ‘already been in special measures for a year’ yet a recent Ofsted report found ‘leaders and managers are not taking effective action towards the removal of special measures’ and the school’s improvement plans are ‘not fit for purpose’.

The letter continues: “We therefore regret to inform you that we no longer have confidence in the university having any involvement in our schools. Whilst the university has had wider positive impacts on many of our communities, the record of repeated failure in our schools is a situation that cannot continue any longer.

“The trust’s track record does not indicate that it will be able to improve standards across the board and the recent financial reports suggest that you do not have the capacity or resources to address this in any event. We are therefore requesting that you voluntarily cede control of all schools within the trust by the end of the academic year, returning all property and assets to the department, pending the sourcing of new sponsors.

“We are sorry to have to write in such terms but the children in our constituencies deserve a better standard of education than you are able to deliver.”

University Church Free School in Union Street, Chester.

UCAT has hit back saying academies are ‘no strangers to political opposition’ and it is disappointing the information contained in the MPs’ letter is ‘selective’.

The trust says the proportion of pupils gaining five A* to C grades at GCSE at UCEA in Ellesmere Port has doubled – from 19% to 38%. The University of Chester Academy Northwich (UCAN) now has an Ofsted ‘good’ rating having been in ‘special measures’.

University Church Free School in Chester – the only school established from the outset by UCAT – earned a ‘good’ rating in its first Ofsted inspection.

A UCAT spokesperson said: “The reality is that children and young people studying at schools inherited by UCAT, most of which were in challenging circumstances to begin with, have been given opportunities that they would not otherwise have had.”

UCAT said it had been ‘open’ about its financial deficit and there were factors at play outside UCAT’s control in terms of pupil numbers such as a ‘declining’ population in the catchment areas for four of its seven schools.