Labour tells free schools: ‘We are behind you’
The new shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, says a Labour government would not close any free schools set up under the coalition.
Mr Hunt, who once called the policy “a vanity project for yummy mummies”, says he now regrets the remark, and said he would happily sent his own children to a free school.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, he said: “I regret those comments because I think any parents, be they yummy mummies or faddy daddies, involved in the education of their children is great.
“What I am saying is if you want to do that when we are in government we will be on your side. There has been this perception that we would not be, and I want people to be absolutely clear that we are. I am putting rocket boosters on getting behind parents and social entrepreneurs.”
He added: “We are not going to go back to the old days of the local authority running all the schools – they will not be in charge.
“We will keep those free schools going. We aren’t in the business of taking them down.
“We have to clear up this question which has dogged Labour education policy since we entered opposition and since Michael Gove began his reforms, as to what we’d do. We just want to say, ‘You are setting up these schools, we are behind you’.”
The Conservatives accused previous Labour education spokesman Stephen Twigg of hypocrisy on free schools for saying “we don’t like them” while praising the work of free schools in his constituency.
The newspaper called said Mr Hunt’s remarks amounted to a “shock U-turn” for Labour and said the party’s plans for “parent-led academies” are almost identical to free schools.
Asked whether the new academies would offer everything free schools have got, Mr Hunt said: “Yes, but in an area of need, absolutely.”
He added: “The innovation, creativity, community engagement you see in the best free schools – great, let’s have more.”
Mr Hunt said parent-led academies would be financially accountable and required to employ properly qualified teachers.
He said changes were necessary to avoid a repeat of what happening at the Al Madinah Muslim school in Derby which is threatened with closure over “unacceptable” teaching standards.
He told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show: “What is going on in the Al Madinah School in Derby is a terrifying example of the mistakes of Michael Gove’s education policy.
“You have had a system which allows essentially financial irregularities, allegations of an extremist curriculum teaching ideas contrary to British values, because there’s no oversight there.”