GAVIN TRUANT
EDUCATION SECRETARY MISSES MPS’ CALL FOR TIMETABLE ON SCHOOLS REOPENING
GAVIN WILLIAMSON has been accused of ducking his duties after failing to appear in parliament over the schools closure crisis.
Education secretary Mr Williamson sent a junior minister to the Commons to face an urgent question from Labour’s Kate Green over providing a timetable for when they might reopen.
The shadow education secretary accused ministers of ‘failing to give parents, students and staff the credible plan they deserve’ and said ‘we simply don’t know what the government’s plan is for school reopening other than what we read in the newspapers.’
Ms Green requested the education secretary be summoned to answer questions, but schools minister Nick Gibb responded for the government instead.
Earlier, the Labour whips’ office tweeted: ‘Where’s @GavinWilliamson?’ adding that the timetable question ‘is of huge importance to millions of students, parents, teachers & staff looking for answers for the reopening of educational settings.’
Government sources said Mr Williamson had addressed the Commons twice last week as well as making various previous announcements, while a No.10 spokesman defended sending Mr Gibb as it was ‘obviously his portfolio.’
When England’s latest lockdown was announced, Boris Johnson said it was his hope that coronavirus levels would be sufficiently reduced for schools to be fully reopened around the middle of February.
But in recent days reports suggested they may not reopen until after Easter at the earliest, with the prime minister refusing to rule out the possibility of further delays. Schools are still open but only to vulnerable children or those whose parents are key workers. Both Conservative and Labour MPs ramped up the pressure for a clear plan yesterday, warning of a ‘national emergency’ of lost learning and a mental health ‘time bomb’.
Tory backbencher Siobhan Baillie said parents were ‘at their wits’ end’ and spoke of a father who contacted her via Instagram ‘desperately worried about the mental health of his children being at home all day.’
Some suggested schools should be reopened after the mid-February half-term break in areas where infection and transmission rates were low. Mr Gibb insisted: ‘We will always be led by the science when making decisions about moving away from the lockdown conditions.’ He also indicated support for teachers and other school staff being prioritised for Covid vaccines in the next phase, still to be determined.