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Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
It is not just the state that is failing white kids, it is Labour
In an education system which has improved considerably over the previous 14 years of Conservative Government, Bridget Phillipson – Labour's Education Secretary – has been searching high and low for a figure she can use to make party political hay. Thanks to the reforms to the teaching of reading introduced by Michael Gove and I from 2010, England is now fourth in the world in the reading ability of our nine-and 10-year-olds according to the authoritative PIRLS study. And in maths England has risen from 27 th in 2009 to 11 th in the latest PISA survey of over 80 countries. These figures are challenging for a Labour politician who is keener on making partisan jibes than doing the hard work of raising academic standards in our schools. Labour have lighted upon one figure – the proportion of 'white working-class children' achieving a strong pass (Grade 5) in English and Maths GCSEs which they cite as 19 per cent compared to the overall figure of 46 per cent. I put that phrase in inverted commas, because the figure they quote is actually for white children eligible for free school meals, which is by no means the same as working-class, and Bridget Phillipson knows that, or should do. Nevertheless, I agree that the figure is too low. But let's look at those statistics when Labour were last in office and before our reforms to the education system were in place. The problem is the grading system of GCSEs was changed in 2017 from letters to numbers. The most accurate comparison is between a Grade 4 (known as a Good pass) and a Grade C in the old system. Back in 2010, 30.9 per cent of pupils eligible for Free School Meals achieved a C grade or better in their English and Maths GCSE. In 2024, some 43.6 per cent of pupils eligible for Free School Meals achieved a Grade 4 or higher in their English and Maths GCSEs. I wish I had the figure to compare a Grade 5 with the old grading system in 2010 but because the Grade 5 lies between an old B and a C that direct comparison isn't possible. But these show how much genuine progress was made amongst all children from disadvantaged backgrounds between 2010 and 2014. And Bridget Phillipson knows that or should do. These figures reflect the reality that there was significant improvement in standards in our state schools between 2010 and 2024, due to a real focus on phonics in the teaching of reading, better teaching of maths by the adoption of methods common in the highest performing countries in the world, particularly east Asia. It has been achieved through a stronger knowledge-rich curriculum and more support for schools to improve behaviour. The last Conservative Government gave schools more autonomy, to free them from the 'progressivist' ideology that was driving down standards when Labour were last in power. The UK fell from 7 th in reading in 2000 to 25 th by 2009 and from 8 th to 28 th in Maths, over those years of Labour government, a decline that we reversed through hard work and reform in the years after 2010. The autonomy we gave to schools through the Academies programme (combined with strong accountability), and which helped drive up standards, is now being undermined by the current Government through measures in their Schools Bill currently going through Parliament. The stronger curriculum we carefully introduced between 2013 and 2017, and which schools have adopted and are teaching well, is threatened by the Government's curriculum and assessment review that is still to produce its final report. Everything Bridget Phillipson has sought to do since becoming Education Secretary in 2024 has been to undo the reforms that successfully drove higher academic standards in our schools. Am I content that only 19 per cent of white children eligible for free school meals achieved a strong pass in English and Maths GCSE last year? Of course not. But our reforms were helping these children. Everything Labour is now doing will simply make the education system worse. Mercia School in Sheffield, a free school, the type of which Labour have refused to create more, achieves astonishing results in a disadvantaged part of that South Yorkshire city. At Mercia School 80.6 per cent of their pupils (of all ethnicities) eligible for free school meals achieve a grade 5 or better in their English and Maths GCSE. If the current government were serious about standards they would be learning from Mercia and similar schools and spreading that success across the school system as a whole. Instead, their Schools Bill removes many of the freedoms and much of the autonomy which have underpinned the success of schools like Mercia. The suggestion that the Conservative Party failed to deliver for schoolchildren – of any group – is absurd.
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Labour revolt on migrant hotels: After shock Epping court ruling, Left-wing councils poised to defy Starmer by seeking to remove asylum seekers too
Keir Starmer was facing a Labour revolt on Wednesday night as councils prepared to battle the Home Office over migrant hotels. Town hall leaders across the country said they are already looking to follow Epping Forest District Council and take legal action to prevent small boat arrivals being placed in local hotels. At least four Labour-run authorities were understood to be studying the ruling and considering their own course, posing a new headache for the Prime Minister. Kemi Badenoch wrote to all leaders of Tory-led parties on Wednesday night, pledging her support for any legal action they take, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was under pressure to rule out using private rental housing as an alternative to hotels. Home Office minister Dan Jarvis admitted on Wednesday he could not say where displaced migrants will end up following Tuesday's landmark High Court ruling, which ordered the Bell Hotel in Epping to be closed within weeks. In a letter to Ms Cooper, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: 'Up and down the country people are furious about the number of illegal migrants being housed in hotels - which rose in the nine months following the election under Labour. 'People are also concerned that you are now moving people from hotels into apartments and other accommodation which is sorely needed by young people here who are struggling under this Labour Government.' Around 32,000 migrants are currently placed in 210 hotels around the country, at a cost to the taxpayer of nearly £6m a day, with others in the private rental sector including HMOs (house of multiple occupation), which are often used by students and young people. On Wednesday night, writing to all Conservative controlled councils pledging her support to them fighting hotels in their area, Ms Badenoch accused Labour of 'trying to ram through such asylum hotels without consultation and without proper process.' 'They are treating local residents and local councils with contempt,' she said. Those councils seeking to emulate Epping, which was granted its injunction on a planning technicality, could coordinate their actions, with at least one already contacting the Essex authority asking for help with its own case. Paula Basnett, the Labour leader of Wirral Council, confirmed she was refusing to toe the party line and had asked officers to seek 'urgent legal advice' to see if the local authority could oppose government plans for the Holiday Inn Express in Hoylake. The hotel was embroiled in controversy in 2022 when RNLI volunteers on a training day were kicked out midway through their stay to make room for asylum seekers. It was a target for recent protests over plans to house single male migrants, rather than families. Ms Basnett said: 'The situation in Wirral with the continued use of hotels as asylum accommodation is unacceptable. 'Recent legal developments in other parts of the country have shown that councils can successfully challenge the Government's approach. In light of this, I have instructed that urgent legal advice be sought on whether Wirral Council can pursue similar action to protect our communities. 'Wirral has always shown compassion towards those in genuine need. 'But compassion does not mean central government can impose poorly thought-through, short-term solutions that undermine local communities and ignore democratic accountability.' In Labour-run Tamworth, leader Carol Dean confirmed it was considering challenging the use of a hotel in the town which was the focus for violent disorder during last summer's riots. She said: 'I understand the strong feelings within our community regarding the use of the Holiday Inn to house those seeking asylum, and I want to reassure residents that we are listening to their concerns and taking them seriously. 'The situation at Epping Forest represents a potentially important legal precedent, and we are carefully assessing what this might mean for our circumstances here in Tamworth.' And a spokesman for fellow Labour-led authorities in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and Rushmoor, Hampshire, did not rule out taking similar action. Nigel Farage said Reform UK was exploring the prospect of legal action on the councils where his party have responsibility for planning permission. Corina Gander, Tory leader of Broxbourne Borough Council in Hertfordshire, said her council chief executive 'was in contact' with officials from Epping Forest to better understand the ruling. Protesters gather outside the Bell hotel on July 31 to express concern about migrants being housed there 'We are not the right place for asylum hotels, so we are looking at the procedure that we could follow,' she said. In Lincolnshire, Craig Leyland, the leader of Tory-run East Lindsey District Council, said it stands 'strongly against the use of hotels in our district by the Home Office for those seeking asylum'. Mr Leyland added: 'I have asked officers to investigate and understand this case and will take appropriate action once we understand if there are any similarities that we can act on.' And the leader of Tory-run Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council said the authority was looking at legal action, even though it only had the one asylum hotel. He said: 'The Epping judgement was very encouraging, I think it pleased a lot of people. 'People might say: you don't have a massive problem with asylum seekers, but the point is we don't want a problem in the future. 'There just isn't the infrastructure here, and we don't want to end up like Epping with lots of asylum hotels. 'Successive governments have let it get out of hand, people have had enough of it. So we are looking at what we can do.' Richard Biggs, Conservative leader of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, added: 'We've got the legal team looking at it at the moment, the planning officers are having an input into that obviously, and when I get the report we'll make a decision.' Other authorities have ruled out legal action, with the leader of Labour-run Newcastle City Council saying she was 'confident' the council could end the use of hotels without going to court. Karen Kilgour, who sits as an independent, said: 'We recognise that people seeking asylum include families, women, and children, many of whom have faced unimaginable trauma. 'Newcastle has a proud history of offering sanctuary, and we stand ready to play our part - but it must be done in a way that works for our city and supports the dignity and wellbeing of those who come here.' Brighton and Hove City Council, meanwhile, has said that as a 'proud city of sanctuary' it will continue to welcome and support asylum seekers. On Wednesday night, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick called on authorities to follow Epping Forest's example and seek a court injunction. In a video message announcing the creation of a movement called 'Lawyers for Borders', he said: 'Every patriotic council, whether Conservative, Reform, whatever, should follow Epping's lead and seek an injunction. 'And if you are a council or a community group and you need our help, contact my office. If you're a lawyer and you want to join the fight, contact me.' On Wednesday, security minister Mr Jarvis said the government was 'looking at a range of different contingency options' about what to do with those in asylum hotels, but refused to provide any further details. He told Times Radio: 'I think the important point to make is that nobody really thinks that hotels are a sustainable location to accommodate asylum seekers. 'That's precisely why the Government has made a commitment that, by the end of this Parliament, we would have phased out the use of them.' Epping Forest District Council asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel after it had been at the centre of protests in recent weeks. The council argued the owners of the establishment did not have the requisite planning permission for the building to be used as full-time housing. The demonstrations came after an Ethiopian migrant at the hotel was charged with three sexual assaults, including on a 14-year-old girl, in two days. He denies the charge and is due to stand trial later this month. A full hearing will take place at a later date and council leader Chris Whitbread said his authority would 'find the money' to battle any appeal lodged by the Home Office.
BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Tory councils should consider asylum hotel challenges, says Badenoch
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is encouraging Tory-controlled councils to consider launching legal challenges against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in their said Epping Forest District Council had achieved "a victory for local people", after a High Court ruling blocked a hotel from housing asylum a letter to Conservative council leaders, Badenoch wrote "we back you to take similar action to protect your community... if your legal advice supports it".A Labour spokesperson said Badenoch's letter was "desperate and hypocritical nonsense from the architects of the broken asylum system". The Labour spokesperson said under the Tories, "the number of asylum hotels in use rose as high as 400"."There are now half that and there are now 20,000 fewer asylum seekers in hotels than at their peak under the Tories," the spokesperson comes after the High Court on Monday granted the Conservative-controlled Epping council a temporary injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at The Bell Hotel in court ruled that about 140 asylum seekers must be moved out of the hotel by 12 September, giving the government limited time to find alternative across England are considering similar legal challenges as ministers to draw up contingency plans for housing asylum seekers set to be removed from the Bell Hotel. Historically, hotels have only been used to house asylum seekers in short-term emergency situations when other accommodation was hotel use rose sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic, hitting a peak of 56,042 in 2023 when the Conservatives were in Labour government has pledged to end the use of migrant hotels by 2029, by cutting small-boat crossings and speeding up decisions on asylum were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed in hotels at the end of March, down 15% from the end of December, according to Home Office recent years, other councils have taken legal action in an attempt to close asylum hotels in their areas but in previous cases judges have refused to Epping Forest District Council successfully argued its case was different as the hotel had become a safety risk, as well as a breach of planning law by ceasing to be a normal judge ruled in favour of the council, which made the case there had been "evidenced harms" related to protests around the hotel, which had led to violence and other councils to follow suit they would have to show the High Court evidence of local harm. On Wednesday, a number of councils, including some run by Labour, said they were assessing their legal her letter, Badenoch told Tory council leaders they may "wish to take formal advice from planning officers on the other planning enforcement options available to your council in relation to unauthorised development or change of use".The Conservative leader of Broxbourne Council, Corina Gander, said she was "expecting to go down the same path" as Epping Forest District Council when filing a legal challenge to an asylum hotel in her UK leader Nigel Farage has said all 12 councils controlled by his party will "do everything in their power to follow Epping's lead".The leader of Reform UK-led West Northamptonshire Council said he was "considering the implications of this judgment to understand any similarities and differences and actively looking at the options now available to us".Carol Dean, leader of Labour-controlled Tamworth Council, said her authority had previously decided against legal action but was now "carefully assessing" what the decision might mean for the said it was a "potentially important legal precedent".If successful, further legal challenges have the potential to pile more pressure on the government to find alternative housing options for home secretary Chris Philp said asylum seekers moved out of the hotel in Epping should not be put in other hotels, flats or a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, he called for alternative accommodation such as former military sites or barges to be Office Minister Dan Jarvis told the BBC the government was "looking at contingency options" for housing those being moved out of the Bell Hotel but gave no specific examples."There's likely to be a range of different arrangements in different parts of the country," Jarvis June, ministers said the government was looking at buying tower blocks and former student accommodation, external to house migrants. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
