‘Absolutely outrageous and unforgivable’: Labour minister skewered in blistering GB News tirade
Political commentator Piers Pottinger has furiously torn into Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson on GB News amid an ongoing row about school reforms.
She has announced sweeping changes to state schools – academies and those runs by councils – to ensure they all follow the same pay and conditions framework.
Academies currently have the freedom to set their own pay and conditions for staff, meaning some exceed the national pay scales for teachers.
The new bill would bring all teachers onto the same core pay and conditions framework.
Pottinger lashed out at the amendments on GB News, saying they are the mark of someone with a “communist” outlook.
“I think she is the most poisonous education secretary there has been. She is controlled by the trade unions”, he said.
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“She is already decimating educational standards in this country. She withdrew all funding for teaching Latin in state schools. Absolutely outrageous and unforgivable.
“The real concern is the rigid curriculum she is introducing at the behest of the unions. There is no question she has done more damage to education in this country than any post-war education secretary.”
Phillipson has hit out at criticism of the plans, saying shadow ministers and “friends in the commentariat” are all based in London and they should set their sights afar.
She wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “Opposition shadow ministers and their friends in the commentariat should try leaving London for a change.
“They’ll find plenty of underperforming academies which need new answers to drive up standards in their classrooms.”
Former education secretary Michael Gove is among those to have criticised the plans, saying they are “blighting the prospects of children and holding our economy back”.
“I am concerned that the emphasis on ambition and rigour in the education system will be diluted,” he said.
Gove added: “Any attempt to divert and water down the commitment to excellence will be to surrender to the trade union-led war on knowledge at a time when the government at last begins to get it right on defence, welfare and health.”
The changes will also see academies forced to teach the national curriculum for the first time, while they would also lose the power to recruit teachers without qualifications.
The National Education Union has backed the proposals, saying they would “make a meaningful difference to the lives of staff and children”.