Labour's shadow schools minister Wes Streeting on Times Radio. "I don’t think Gavin Williamson’s position is particularly tenable. I doubt me calling for him to resign now will make any difference… Any teacher will tell you he’s the worst education secretary in living memory."
On whether pupils should sit exams later this year: "It’s looking increasingly challenging." (Says "It would have been best for exams to go ahead")
Do teachers have right to refuse to go into work? Streeting: "I think they’re covered by employment law like everyone else." He says education unions have been "forced into this position" and "their backs are up against the wall".
Streeting says question for government is: "Are they following the scientific advice?" He says "The government has lost control of the virus and unless there are bigger restrictions in place that is going to be harder to solve"
Should schools open tomorrow? Streeting: "Many schools tomorrow are closing and many more will follow." He says we will be hearing from Keir Starmer on this later today.
Would it be safer if all schools in Tier 4 were closed? "In some ways that would be the easy answer, really," says Streeting. He adds that the "harder question" is over remote learning, concerns raised by children’s commissioner, how to open them again.
Streeting says: "Keir Starmer has been engaged very heavily with this issue over the weekend" – and basically there will be news on this later today.
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