The Tories have warned against Labour’s education reforms (Image: Getty)
Labour’s plans for education reform will lead to a “gross, socialist uniformity” in the sector, a Tory MP has warned.
There has been widespread criticism over the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill amid warnings it will not help improve schools and weaken the academy structure.
Speaking in the Commons during the Bill’s debate today, Conservative former minister Graham Stuart said: “We must all in this House recognise that we follow in the footsteps of giants. Tony Blair, Lord Adonis and others created the academy system which was built on under the last Conservative government and brought about a transformation of English education.
“Why does the Secretary of State want to dismantle the work of decades by members across this House and bring about kind-of a gross, socialist uniformity which will destroy the progress that has been made?”
His remarks echoed Conservative former education secretary Damian Hinds who said the Bill will make it “as if Tony Blair had never been prime minister”.
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The former PM created the state-maintained but independently-run academy schools. The Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson hit back at Tory MPs’ “mischaracterisation”.
She later described her “outrage at the excessive and exploitative profit-making we have seen from some private providers” of children’s social care.
The Education Secretary, whose Party has heaped VAT on private school fees, added: “It is shameful, it is unacceptable and it will end.”
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will finish academy freedoms over teachers’ pay, recruitment and the curriculum.
It will also restrict the ability of good schools to expand – and even give Whitehall powers to regulate school uniforms.
Meanwhile the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that growth in mainstream school funding per pupil in England in 2025–26 will not be enough to cover the expected increase in school costs.
Researchers said the fall in international students and a rise in employers’ national insurance contributions will continue to have their impact on universities.
Luke Sibieta, IFS research fellow, said: “This year’s spending review will bring a lot of difficult choices on education funding in England. A very tight picture on the public finances means that most departments, including education, will probably need to make savings. Working out exactly how and where is much easier said than done. Spiralling costs of special educational needs provision seem likely to wipe out any opportunities for savings in the schools budget from falling pupil numbers.
“College and sixth form budgets are already stretched, and will need to cover the cost of rising student numbers. The inflation-linked rise in tuition fees only provided a brief reprieve for university finances, and further tuition fee rises seem likely.”