Sunak hit by claim of concrete proof he ignored 'critical risk' to schools - The Independent

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Rishi Sunak was drawn into the centre of the scandal over collapsing schools on Monday, as he was accused of “huge culpability” for the crisis while the Tories appeared to descend into a “farcical” blame game.

The prime minister was forced to deny claims by a former top civil servant that he had ignored warnings over a “critical risk to life” by cutting school repairs funding when he was still chancellor.

And in an extraordinary outburst which left No 10 reeling, the education secretary Gillian Keegan said others had “sat on their a***” over the crisis and she had done a “f****** good job”.

Mr Sunak and Ms Keegan have struggled to answer questions on the full scale of the RAAC problem – but both admitted that hundreds more schools in England could be affected by crumbling concrete than the 104 buildings already forced to close.

It came as:

• Senior Tory MPs told The Independent that Sunak would have to find “new money” for school repairs
• Ms Keegan insisted she was not referring to Tory colleagues when she said others had “sat on their a***”
• Labour began campaigning on social media on Ms Keegan’s quote – saying the Tories “want you to thank them” for collapsing schools
• The government refused to say when a full list of affected schools would finally be published
• Ms Keegan revealed that 1,500 schools are yet to respond to a survey on whether they have RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete)

Jonathan Slater, the former top civil servant at the Department for Education (DfE), revealed that officials were aware of the need to rebuild between 300 and 400 schools a year while Mr Sunak was in the Treasury from 2019 to 2022.

Mr Slater told the BBC of his “frustration” when the Treasury said it would only provide money for 100 a year before it was cut further by Mr Sunak in 2021 to just 50 a year.

The ex-permanent secretary said he was “absolutely amazed at the decision made by the chancellor”. Asked to spell out who was the chancellor, he replied: “Rishi Sunak.”

Rishi Sunak has denied claims he cut plans to build more new schools

But Mr Sunak and No 10 denied that it amounted to a cut. The PM said funding repairs for 50 schools a year was “completely in line with what we have always done”.

Tory MPs urged Mr Sunak to get a grip of the mounting crisis by coming up with a funding package, as the government continued to insist that RAAC repairs would have to come from the existing Department for Education budget.

One senior Tory MP told The Independent it was “inevitable” that Mr Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt would have to commit new money to get the party out of the crisis. Another senior Tory, a former cabinet minister, told The Independent: “If new money is needed then this will have to be done.”

Mr Sunak’s day got worse when Ms Keegan was caught on microphone voicing her frustrations about the response to the RAAC scandal at the end of an interview with ITV News.

Ms Keegan later apologised and said she was not referring to any “anybody in particular” when she complained about other people having “sat on their a*** and done nothing”.

The education secretary told broadcasters it was an “off the cuff” remark made after the interviewer had pressed her quite hard.

Ms Keegan swore as she speaking after a broadcast interview

(ITV News)

Claiming she had not been blaming other ministers, or blaming school leaders, she added: “It’s also frustrating that we’ve got some questionnaires that still are not there, we’ve been chasing and chasing them.”

Ms Keegan later told Sky News that she had not meant to suggest any “complacency” and said she was talking about her department when she said he was doing a "f****** good job”.

She also defended holidaying in the run-up to the crisis. Aides had conceded she was in Spain between August 25 and Thursday, when the closures were ordered. “I came back straight away – well, actually, I had to wait a day because of the air traffic control issue,” she added.

One senior Tory extraordinarily suggested that Ms Keegan was trying to make a splash to boost her profile in case of a leadership election in the wake of next year’s general election.

The MP told The Independent: “I think she’s trying to make an impact personally in a bid to stand out and line herself up for the leadership post-general-election.”

Labour quickly turned Ms Keegan’s comments into its latest personal attack advert against Mr Sunak – just days after claiming the PM does not want schools to be safe. “Your kid’s school is literally collapsing and the Tories want you to thank them for it,” the party tweeted.

No 10 said it was said it was “obviously not acceptable” for the education secretary to have sworn – but said the PM was satisfied with her apology.

Sir Keir Starmer said Tory ministers were ‘passing the buck’

Sir Keir Starmer said the whole situation was “descending into farce” – saying Ms Keegan’s comments showed “passing the buck within the cabinet”.

Labour said the PM bore “huge culpability” for the crisis. Sir Keir told broadcasters: “You’ve got members of the cabinet coming out trying to blame other people, trying to blame people within their own teams and to say, essentially, ‘Put responsibility anywhere but on the government.’”

The Liberal Democrats’ leader Ed Davey said: “It is staggering that in the very same Budget in which he slashed taxes for the banks, Sunak couldn’t find the cash needed to urgently repair crumbling schools.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told The Independent that Mr Sunak had not cleared up questions around funding: “It is not an issue of whether 50 schools a year was in line with previous spending.

“It is what his answer is to the information from Mr Slater that the Treasury refused to fund the number of school rebuilding projects identified as necessary by the DfE – despite evidence of a critical risk to life.”

Remedial work being carried out at Mayflower Primary School in Leicester, affected by RAAC

After 104 schools were closed, Mr Sunak insisted 95 per cent of England’s schools were unaffected, and Downing Street said the total number was expected to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

There are 450 schools with the suspected weak concrete that are still waiting for an official survey.

Teachers and parents at affected schools that have been forced to closed spoke of the “devastation” at fresh disruption. Classes moving back online is a “scary prospect” for children after Covid, a parent whose daughter’s class has been evacuated told The Independent.

Hina Robinson, whose younger daughter is starting Year 6 at Wyburns Primary School in Rayleigh, Essex, was told on Friday that her class would be remotely learning for a fortnight after RAAC was identified.

“When [Covid] happened, children didn’t know how long that was going to last for, so they have that feeling again,” the 46-year-old geography teacher said, adding that teachers at her daughter’s school are “devastated” by the sudden move back online.

Despite Mr Sunak’s insistence that he is committed to school repairs, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank said the average capital spending on schools is 50 per cent below its 2010 peak.

The National Audit Office reported that the Department for Education calculated it needed about £5.3bn per year from 2021 to 2025 in order to maintain school buildings and mitigate risks. HM Treasury allocated only about £3.1bn per year.

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2023-09-04 21:17:55Z
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