PM’S unlikely ally as Blair backs call to open schools in England
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BORIS Johnson’s administration is right to start reopening schools in England, former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.
The Government’s plans to start sending children back to school next month has come under attack from teaching unions and some local authorities, with critics arguing it is too soon to lift the coronavirus-related lockdown restrictions.
Prime Minister Mr Johnson, in his address to the nation on May 10, said Reception, Y1 and Y6 pupils would be the first to go back, starting on June 1 “at the earliest”.
His ambition, Mr Johnson said, was that secondary pupils scheduled to take exams next year would “get at least some time with their teachers before the holidays”.
Despite criticism of the proposals in some quarters Mr Johnson has found an unlikely ally in three-time general election winner Mr Blair.
In an interview with BBC Newsnight broadcast last night, the PM of 10 years said the Government was adhering to scientific advice by preparing schools to open their doors again.
“They’re right, I think, to be reopening the schools,” he said. “I don’t think they would say that they’re putting school opening above health risks. What they’re doing is basing it on the evidence, actually. There are countries that have reopened parts, at least, of their school system.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock looked to reassure the House of Commons yesterday, telling MPS only a “very small” number of children were “badly affected” by Covid-19.
Mr Blair backed up the comments, telling the BBC his own institute, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, had gathered data to show that “especially for younger children, risks of transmission are actually quite low”.
He argued that private schools had been continuing to educate their pupils, while youngsters in the state system had been given “no education at all” since lockdown on March 20.