Outrage over Starmer’s refusal to have a public inquiry into the rape gang scandal continues to rumble on. The Tories have now proposed a reasoned amendment for today’s second reading of the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to call for an inquiry. CCHQ kicking into gear on this one…
The full reasoned amendment, which if voted for will kill the bill, states:
That this House, while welcoming measures to improve child protection and safeguarding, declines to give a Second Reading to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill because it undermines the long-standing combination of school freedom and accountability that has led to educational standards rising in England, effectively abolishes academy freedoms which have been integral to that success and is regressive in approach, leading to worse outcomes for pupils; because it ends freedom over teacher pay and conditions, making it harder to attract and retain good teachers; because it ends freedom over Qualified Teacher Status, making teacher recruitment harder; because it removes school freedoms over the curriculum, leading to less innovation; because repealing the requirements for failing schools to become academies and for all new schools to be academies will undermine school improvement and remove the competition which has led to rising standards; because the Bill will make it harder for good schools to expand, reducing parental choice and access to a good education; and calls upon the Government to develop new legislative proposals for children’s wellbeing including establishing a national statutory inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation, focused on grooming gangs.
Bridget Phillipson was on the morning round today slamming the Tories’ for being a bunch of ‘bandwagon jumpers with no shame’ – repeating Starmer’s ‘far-right’ smear that’s already been blasted by critics. CCHQ had expected the amendment would be voted against by the Lib Dems and Labour. Now Starmer has confirmed he will order his MPs to vote it down. Elon Musk claims it’s because the PM is “hiding terrible things.” How much backlash can Starmer weather before he’s forced into U-turn on this…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”