Nick Gibb accidentally added more pressure to the PM during an interview with Kay Burley this morning, effectively admitting that Rishi refused to fund the rebuilding of more schools as Chancellor. Speaking on Sky News, the long-standing Education Minister revealed that then-Chancellor Rishi had rejected a request to rebuild 200 schools a year back in 2021. Gibb conceded that, although the department had “put in a bid for 200″ schools to be rebuilt, “what Rishi agreed to was to continue the rebuilding programme at 50 a year”. The second day of term isn’t getting off to a good start.
Following widespread reports in The Times and elsewhere that “rising Tory star” Kemi Badenoch is poised to replace Gavin Williamson as Education Secretary, rumours around SW1 have run amuck. Today on LBC, Schools Minister Nick Gibb responded to the reports:
“Well, this is all press speculation. I know the media loves to talk about these games. I’ve worked with Gavin Williamson for the last two years. He’s a very effective Secretary of State. He’s presided over making sure that young people can transition during the pandemic that they won’t suffer long term damage to their prospects as a consequence of the pandemic.”
GCSE results are coming out this morning, so students won’t be the only ones nervously contemplating their fate…
Boris and Carries’ summer holiday was always set to be, in one sense, political, having plumped for a Scottish getaway to show their devotion to the union. Asked by Sky News this morning what Boris has been doing throughout the exams fiasco, Nick Gibb said the PM is:
“closely involved in all these issues. I spoke to the PM twice this week so he’s aware of what’s going on and is being kept informed daily about the details of what is happening with the exam issue”
Doesn’t sound very relaxing – though the last time Boris went on holiday he had to return to fight a global pandemic, so it’s still calmer than the last one…
A day after it emerged Gavin Williamson offered his resignation to the PM over the A-Levels, GCSE and BTEC fiasco series, this morning Nick Gibb revealed to LBC he too considered his resignation before concluding it “would have been the wrong thing to do” ahead of inevitable enquiries by the parliamentary education select committee and others. To be fair to Gibb and Williamson, abandoning the DfE in the middle of the storm, and weeks before all schools are set to return, wouldn’t have helped anything…
Responding to Nick Ferrari’s blunt claim that he “wouldn’t have the balls to stay in post” if he’d presided over this scandal, Gibb claimed he’d given the question “a lot of thought”.
The rest of the schools’ minister’s morning interview round was less clear, however. Gibb managed to both defend the algorithm itself – saying “The model was a good model” though something went wrong in its application – and defending the decision to scrap the algorithm. If Gibb had resigned as schools minister, it would have ended his 13-year run with the portfolio – ironically longer than any students’ time at school from nursery to Sixth form…
