Labour is facing serious heat for its eyebrow-raising education policies which includes restricting school freedoms, taxing independent schools, and handing stricter control over schools and academies back to Whitehall. Even the Economist says “Labour’s still-vague plans for improving state schools do not inspire optimism”…
Now Welsh Labour’s terrible record on schools is under more fire thanks to its diversion of £11 million in taxpayer funding to its “Minority Ethnic, Gypsy, Roma, Traveller (MEGRT) Grant“. The Welsh government says it is “embedding anti-racism into the education system and driving equity in education” through the money, which is handed to councils. Welsh Labour now admits it doesn’t bother asking how those authorities spend the grant, which is apparently dedicated to “ensuring a diverse and inclusive curriculum and school environment”.
“We do not request that schools and local authorities take time away from supporting learners to provide Welsh Government with specific detail on the amount of their budget that they delegate in this way.”
Former Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies tells Guido “this diversity grant is a typical example of how Labour divides our communities for ideological reasons. I have yet to see a grant come out of Welsh Government to support white working class boys, who in many cases underperform compared to their peers.” They might want to work out what it’s being spent on for a start…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”