Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Tomlinson Excerpts

Wednesday 16th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

From the reaction he has just heard, the right hon. Gentleman will know that he has spoken for many in this House and, I think, the vast majority of people in our country. Airey Neave is the first Member of Parliament I can remember, because he was my Member of Parliament. Ian Gow was one of the first politicians I ever wrote a speech for, and there never was a kinder or gentler public servant in this House. He was cruelly murdered and his family had that life taken away. My view is simple: the terrorism we faced was wrong. It was unjustifiable. The death and the killing was wrong. It was never justified, and people who seek to justify it should be ashamed of themselves.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

Q6. Schools in Poole are in the bottom five and schools in Dorset are in the bottom 11 when it comes to local education authorities and funding per pupil. I welcome this Government’s commitment to a fairer funding formula. Does the Prime Minister recognise the importance of fairer funding for our schools in Poole and Dorset, and the need for that to be implemented as quickly as possible to ensure a world-class education for our children, including respect for our traditions, and perhaps even learning the importance of our national anthem?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point. There are very strong calls on all sides to ensure that we address fairness in funding. In the last Parliament we allocated £390 million extra for fairer funding, and his own authorities, Dorset and Poole, benefited from that, receiving £3.1 million and £3.2 million respectively. I can tell him that that money is included in the baseline for schools funding in 2016 and 2017. But I know that there is unfairness in the current system and I want us to do everything we can to make the funding formula fairer.