Today Parliament packs up for Christmas recess. I figured now is a good time to recap on what I've done as Education Secretary in 2024.

A thread on the change we've driven, and what it means for you.

🎄📆🧵 📤 Kickstarted breakfast club rollout through early adopters scheme

🫵 Better life chances for children, better work choices for parents. Every child in primary school will have access to a breakfast club, boosting attendance and attainment. More flexibility for parents at work.

Schools are in chaos this weekend as ministers scramble to contact heads and close classrooms.

But this is not a new issue.

Labour has been raising questions about the safety of our schools for month after month.

Over 150 questions this last year alone.

A thread …🧵 On 5 September 2022, the then Minister of State for Schools told us that:

“We plan to publish the underlying school level building condition data, collected in the Condition Data Collection programme, later this year.” questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questi…

Today Labour is again winning the battle of ideas.
 
Proper childcare is central to the better Britain Labour will build.
 
But it’s not clear if the promises the Tories are making are ones they can keep: a thread 🧵 
bbc.co.uk/news/business-… Labour is the party of the family.  That’s why reforming childcare is at the heart of our missions for government.
 
Getting childcare right means delivering better outcomes for children, for parents, and above all for families.
ukonward.com/reports/labour…

Labour believes that we must have more ambition and higher standards for children in England’s schools.

Excellence must be for everyone.

And we believe that to pay for that, the tax breaks private schools enjoy should end.

A thread... 🧵
thetimes.co.uk/article/removi… Above all, this is about standards.

For too many children, in too many places, the education that England’s schools provide isn’t good enough.

We see that in the attainment gaps, the hard evidence of how the Conservatives are failing our children.
theguardian.com/education/2022…

Ministerial resignations are usually about accepting responsibility.

But this week Ministers are resigning to dodge responsibility.

And some still won’t resign even now.

A little thread 🧵 … Nadhim Zahawi’s promotion is sickening — a man who has spent nine months as Education Secretary plotting for his next job.

Putting himself first, Boris Johnson second, and our children at best a very distant third.
thetimes.co.uk/article/7a9526…

This morning saw a long-trailed announcement by the government on childcare.

What we needed was a big imaginative change to the way we support working families and children.

What we got was a reheated version of a failed policy.

A little thread 🧵 …
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/… The main plank of the government’s plans is reducing the number of adults required per child in early years contexts.

Sounds familiar?

That’s because even the Tories have rejected this one before.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

Oh dear.
 
The Secretary of State for Education, Nadhim Zahawi, has ripped up his own plans and is back to the drawing board with his very first piece of primary legislation.
 
Once again, Tory chaos is failing our children.
 
A thread ... 🧵
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/… Back in May, Labour warned of the problems with his plans.
 
I flagged, very clearly, that “it gives the Secretary of State sweeping powers to control the day to day running of schools through regulation.”
thetimes.co.uk/article/tories…

If Labour were in government we’d be focusing on children and their schools in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

We want to match their ambition and give them a secure and prosperous future.

But it turns out the government has been focusing on schools in ... Bahrain 🇧🇭.

A little thread 🧵 ... I’ve been in Reading today, listening to children and school staff about their experience of the pandemic and their ambition for themselves and our country.

But the government’s ambition turns out to be for schools in a richer country.

It's good that children are back in school.

But the government is again failing our children.

Yesterday the Education Secretary gave a weak statement to Parliament about their return to school.

These are some of the questions it didn't answer ... a little thread 🧵 ... What guarantee can he offer parents today about the availability of vaccination slots for their children, in schools or elsewhere?
theguardian.com/education/2021…

The government's inaction on school ventilation over the Christmas break has been disgraceful.

But it isn't a new problem. For month after month Labour and others have called for action.

And time and again the Tories have done too little, too late. A thread ... 🧵 In July 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, SAGE looked at the emerging evidence on how covid is transmitted.

It was becoming clear that washing our hands isn't enough: the disease spreads through the air too. (2/21)
gov.uk/government/pub…

For weeks Labour has been demanding urgent action on children’s vaccinations & proper ventilation in schools.

One air purifier per 3 schools is woefully inadequate.

The government’s chaos is yet again failing our children.

They need to get a grip. (1/4)
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… The surge in booster jabs into arms shows what can be done.

But again children are an afterthought.

Nearly 2 million 12-17 year olds remain completely unvaccinated.

The govt could & should have given them their first jabs before schools go back. (2/4)
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/d…

The British people are paying the price for Tory failure.

It’s a year since Rishi Sunak’s summer statement, so he’s been out and about.

He’s now confirmed he’s cutting Universal Credit by £20/week in October.

But don’t forget his other moves. A little thread 🧵 ... There’s the real terms pay cut for NHS staff Rishi Sunak started in April.

That’s right – a cut to the income of the people who looked after hundreds of thousands of covid patients.

theguardian.com/society/2021/m…

This morning the Chancellor is desperately trying to avoid taking responsibility for giving Greensill access to at least £400 m of government-backed loans.
He's claiming it's nothing to do with him or the Treasury.

Of course, that hasn't always been his view. A thread... 2. It was the Chancellor who announced the new government-backed loans - the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).
gov.uk/government/new…

The Greensill story is complex and confusing.

But the Chancellor’s text messages released tonight make it very simple - a little thread: 2. This is about Rishi Sunak intervening to try to put hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer money in the hands of an unregulated lending firm with links to a former Conservative PM.

So today the Cabinet is meeting in Sunderland. Heavy on symbolism, but what are they actually doing for people here? What problems aren’t they sorting? A thread… 1/15 The Home Secretary will probably say something about more police, but the truth is that Northumbria Police has lost over 1,100 officers since 2010. Local people have suffered as anti-social behaviour is on the rise in many parts of our area 2/15

On the argument that most of our rights at work come from the struggle of unions & Labour here in Britain, not from Europe - I half agree and half disagree: a short thread (1/9) I agree that’s where lots of them *came from*, historically. In a past world where Britain was one of the foremost industrial powers, it was well placed not to be simply outcompeted on cost by other countries when workers’ rights were improved here. (2/9)