Government ‘asleep at wheel’ as it tries to reopen schools’ says MP
LABOUR FRONTBENCHER Rachel Reeves has accused the Government of being “asleep at the wheel” over plans to reopen schools following the coronavirus lockdown.
The Leeds West MP and shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and shadow minister for the Cabinet Office said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson was “set a test, he has failed it miserably”. Children in nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 in England began returning to primary school at the beginning of this month after the Government eased lockdown measures.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said his intention is that children of all ages in England should be able to return to school five days a week in September.
Ms Reeves warned of a “generation who are left behind and locked out of future opportunities
because of mistakes made during this pandemic”.
She said the current economic picture was “incredibly worrying”, adding that the debt, deficit and jobs figures, plus the fall of GDP in March, “should give us all huge cause for concern”.
She said: “We do need from the
Chancellor a budget for jobs, a back-to-work budget in July this year to quickly get on top of this.”
Her concerns were echoed by Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who said she was “really worried” about the UK jobs situation and called for “bold thinking”, adding “this could be as bad as the 1930s if we don’t get our act together and come together”.
Ms Reeves said: “Frankly I don’t know what the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been doing for the last three months because he should have been using this period of lockdown to prepare schools to ensure that the space is available, because many schools are cramped, particularly in inner city areas.
“The Government didn’t do that, they were asleep at the wheel. Gavin Williamson was set a test, he has failed it miserably.”