Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gillian Keegan and Angela Richardson

Monday 12th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Gillian Keegan]

The last time I was at the Dispatch Box, the hon. Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda) asked me to meet the family of Ruth Perry and members of the Caversham community following Ruth’s tragic death. I have been honoured to work with Ruth’s family and friends over the last few weeks. I take this matter incredibly seriously. Today, we announced that we are significantly expanding wellbeing support, in addition to announcements from Ofsted to improve the accountability system. Overall grades provide a clear and accessible summary of performance for parents, which is why the vast majority of parents—almost eight in 10—are aware of the Ofsted rating of their child’s school. I encourage parents to read the report narrative alongside the summary grade. The Ofsted grades also mean that we can highlight the success of schools, including the 88% of schools that are now good or outstanding—a much better record than any achieved by the hon. Lady’s Government.

[Angela Richardson (Guildford) (Con)]

T4.   I read with great interest that the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson) recently said in an interview in The Guardian that “the government could reduce the monthly repayments for every single new graduate without adding a penny to government borrowing or general taxation—Labour will not be increasing government spending on this.”That sounds too good to be true. As we on the Government Benches know, those on the Opposition Benches excel themselves on the subject of fairy-tale economics, so can I ask the Secretary of State—

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[Angela Richardson]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Has the Secretary of State made an assessment of the comments by the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South, because to my ears they sound more fantasy than reality?

[Gillian Keegan]

I thank my hon. Friend for her very insightful question. The Labour party’s proposals would, unfortunately, mean that graduates would live unhappily ever after. Either Labour would have graduates pay back their loans at a lower income threshold, impacting people just as they are taking their first steps on the career ladder, or it intends to make graduates pay back their loans well into retirement. That would, essentially, create a graduate tax. Yet again, this is the same old Labour—