Robin Walker
Main Page: Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)Department Debates - View all Robin Walker's debates with the Department for Education
(13 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Michael Gove
Swindon council does a lot of things right, and that is just one more.
Mr Robin Walker (Worcester) (Con)
I warmly welcome the commitment to a new national funding formula—something for which I have been calling since I made my maiden speech. Today the Secretary of State will receive a letter signed by all six Worcestershire Members of Parliament urging him to press ahead with these desperately needed reforms, and to close the appalling £1,100 gap between Worcestershire and the neighbouring authority of Birmingham. May I urge him, as my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr Stuart), the Chair of the Select Committee on Education, did, to press ahead with the reforms and not to listen to the siren voices calling for delay?
Michael Gove
My hon. Friend makes an impressive case for Worcestershire, as do my hon. Friends the Members for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin), for Redditch (Karen Lumley), for Mid Worcestershire (Peter Luff) and for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier). I am very sympathetic to the case they make.