Teachers are likely be “lambasted” for any grade inflation in this year’s GCSE and A-level grades, Britain’s largest teaching union has warned.

The NEU today said that the government hadn’t listened to its suggestions of a plan B, put forward last year, in the likely event of exams being cancelled again and had “missed a whole term in which they could have developed and implemented proposals” for awarding grades.

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NEU joint-general secretary Mary Bousted said it was likely there would be “some grade inflation” this summer.

She said: “You know who will be blamed for that, and you know who the government is hiding behind…When teachers make that ethical and professional decision [in awarding a grade] and it results in some raising of grades, they are going to be lambasted for that and it is entirely unethical that they have been placed in this position by politicians not doing their homework.”

Her statement came this morning as an influential group of MPs warned the government of grade inflation, “chaos” and “Wild West” results for this summer’s A levels and GCSEs.