Labour’s cabinet would be Britain’s most state-educated since 1945

Labour is proud of its status. Sir Keir Starmer’s team often tell of how inspiring teachers got them from tough schools to ancient universities. Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor and a former junior chess champion, talks of the snobbery she met while at Cator Park, a threadbare girl’s comprehensive in London.

In a speech on education on July 6th, Sir Keir invoked the meritocratic spirit of the 1970s, and vowed to break the “class ceiling”. His government will aim to decouple the link between the earnings of children and their parents. He cited his own well-worn biography, of rising from the grammar-school-educated son of a toolmaker to becoming England’s chief prosecutor. “I don’t think I’m being too sentimental to say I grew up surrounded by hope. We took it for granted,” he said.

Private education has become a handy foe. Whereas Sir Tony made the sector work harder for tax breaks, Sir Keir will abolish them. Whether the policy would raise the £1.7bn Labour claims is hotly contested, as no one knows if enrolments would fall. Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, argues the sector has already priced itself out of reach of the middle classes.

Yet elsewhere Labour’s policy is shaping up to be less radical than the rhetoric. It has no plans to rethink how schools are structured—a big reform of the Blair era. It will review the curriculum, but won’t touch maths and literacy where Tory reforms seem to be paying off. Rather Labour plans to offer more of the trimmings in which independent schools excel: arts provision, betterlessons, and the practice of “oracy”—a trendy neologism for articulate speech.

Labour senses the Tories are ceding education as an electoral issue. Mr Sunak wants to expand maths provision, but many of hiss discuss schools only in the context of battling wokery. The rhetoric masks a more fundamental choice. In the New Labour era, spending on schools grew on average by 5% in real terms per year. Tight budgets since means that per-pupil spending in 2024 is forecast to be no higher than it was in 2010.

United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

U.S. Drone Strike Kills lslamic State Group Leader in SyriaA U.S. drone strike killed an Islamic State group leader in Syria hours after the same MQ-9 Reaper drones were harassed by Russian military jets over the western part of the country
Source: TIME - 🏆 93. / 53 Read more »

Half of Scottish state schools not inspected in a decade, figures showFigures obtained through an FoI request show just 57 per cent of state schools, and 54 per cent of independent schools, were inspected after 2012/13.
Source: Daily_Record - 🏆 9. / 89 Read more »

New State Pension pay rise next year could see more people in retirement pay taxThe Conservatives and Labour recently committed to honouring the Triple Lock guarantee on State Pensions until the end of the decade
Source: Daily_Record - 🏆 9. / 89 Read more »

Flashback to 1996: A warm welcome as Nelson Mandela arrives for state visitBack in 1996, Britain rolled out the red carpet as South African President Nelson Mandela arrived for the start of a memorable state visit.
Source: ShropshireStar - 🏆 98. / 51 Read more »

State Pension back payments could be a ‘long process’ for 187,000 older womenLast week, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced that it will start writing to thousands of older people this autumn who may have been underpaid their State Pension due to missing information on their National Insurance (NI) record
Source: Daily_Record - 🏆 9. / 89 Read more »

New calls for WASPI women to receive ‘fair and fast' State Pension compensationNew research from the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign highlights the deep, ongoing impact of the State Pension age changes on women born in the 1950s
Source: Daily_Record - 🏆 9. / 89 Read more »