Plans to give free childcare to every two-year-old in the borough have been slammed by a senior Tory councillor.

Kathy Tracey, lead member for children's services, said parents and children should focus on bonding at an early stage unless there are exceptional circumstances.

This year 162 of Wandsworth’s most disadvantaged two-year-olds are to start nursery school early as part of national plans to expand early years education.

Gordon Brown plans to make this scheme universal eventually, but this week Coun Tracey vowed to oppose this.

She said: “For 99 per cent of the population, the committee and I don’t believe putting two-year-olds in nursery school is good for society.

“The Government is intent on all women starting work when their children are as young as two. We think it’s too young.”

She added: “The bonding that happens at that age with the families is equally important. Therefore, I’m not enthusiastic about universal nursery school provisions for two-year-olds.”

She added that the scheme was only appropriate for a minority of families who were experiencing exceptional difficulties.

The borough received £339,387 this year to give nursery places to two-year-olds from such families.

Last year Labour announced plans to create a “new wave of social mobility” by lowering the free childcare age from three to two.

Although central government plans to make this universal, Wandsworth has only been allocated funding for an additional year - £464,360 in 2010.

As part of the same initiative, three to four-year-olds in the most disadvantaged areas of the borough have been allocated more hours of nursery.

Starting this month, the basic 12.5 hours per week have increased to 15 hours for some children in the borough.

This scheme is expected to become universal from September 2010.