Exam Reform

Debate between Michael Gove and Siobhain McDonagh

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. One of the things we want to encourage in the consultation is thoughtful reflection on how we can properly record the level of achievement that each student has secured. His point is a very valuable contribution to the debate.

[Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab)]

As a new member of the Education Committee, I am particularly disturbed by some of the language the Secretary of State uses. Certainly in my constituency, the real-life chances of kids, particularly those previously in the bottom schools, were transformed with the introduction of city academies by Lord Adonis and the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair. I should like to hear the Secretary of State say good things about great sponsors such as the Harris Federation and the Church of England, because they seem to be missing from this picture.

[Michael Gove]

I am a huge fan of the hon. Lady, one of the last surviving Blairites in the Labour party. I am tempted to say, looking at the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt), that together they are perhaps the last breeding pair of Blairites on the Labour Back Benches. All I will say is that I never lose an opportunity to celebrate the work of the Church of England and Lord Harris, whose 70th birthday party I was delighted to attend on Saturday in order to raise a glass to everything he has achieved for young people in the hon. Lady’s constituency and elsewhere.