Kevin Barron
Main Page: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)Department Debates - View all Kevin Barron's debates with the Department for Education
(13 years, 1 month ago)
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Michael Gove
I try never to rule anything out; life is too short. To return to the Oliver Twist metaphor that we had earlier, I want to ensure that we do not just save Oliver and leave the Artful Dodger and the rest of Fagin’s gang to the wolves, but ensure that every child in poverty is helped. It is therefore important that we all put pressure on independent schools to live up to their charitable foundation by sponsoring academies and doing more for all children in need.
Mr Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) (Lab)
The findings of the Institute for Fiscal Studies on Rotherham metropolitan borough indicate that secondary school education will take a spending cut of between 11.8% and 13.4%. Given that Rotherham is still in the highest 20% of deprived areas in this country, what has happened to the concept of “We’re all in it together”?
Michael Gove
As a deprived area, Rotherham will, over the lifetime of this Parliament, benefit increasingly from the pupil premium. The report to which the right hon. Gentleman refers is a projection—a guess. The IFS is a fantastic think-tank, but it is speculating, not stating.
Let me point out that every single question from Opposition Front Benchers during the course of this Question Time was a plea for more money; not a single question was about the case for reform. In a nutshell, there we have the problem with today’s Labour party: an outstretched hand demanding more cash but not a single thing to say about raising standards.