Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Catherine West and Steve Reed

Thursday 17th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Steve Reed (Croydon North) (Lab)]

I share the many concerns raised about the Budget’s giveaways to the rich at the expense of the poor and disabled. It is despicable and against the British sense of fair play but entirely in line with the behaviour of a Government who are pushing more people into poverty and then blaming and punishing them for it.

Others have spoken movingly about that, but I would like to focus on what the Budget says about the Government’s commitment to devolution. Their actions do not match their rhetoric. The Secretary of State, who introduced the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill, at the same time introduced the Housing and Planning Bill, which contained more than 30 new centralising measures. The Budget contains more of that same centralising instinct. Yesterday, the Government centralised control of every school in the country. They have learnt nothing from the Trojan horse scandal in Birmingham and are now stripping away local accountability from every school.

There is no way that the Department for Education can provide proper oversight of 24,000 schools from Whitehall, and a lack of oversight means that problems will not be noticed or tackled until they have grown into crises. It is not devolution to hand schools over to giant national academy chains, and it is not localist to do that in the teeth of opposition from parents, teachers and communities. I do not understand how the Secretary of State can come here and lecture the House on the need to listen to parents, when she will not listen to parents over forced academisation.

[Catherine West]

What does my hon. Friend make of Conservative Peter Edgar, the executive member for education at Hampshire County Council and a former teacher, who said that the scheme could result in Britain’s education system “imploding” and urged the Government to think again? He said:

“I am horrified to think that the county council’s role in education is going to be destroyed by George Osborne in his budget. We have worked with the government to deliver the reforms and have been congratulated”—

Policing

Debate between Catherine West and Steve Reed

Wednesday 4th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Steve Reed]

rose—

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green) (Lab)]

Will the Home Secretary give way?