Tory school plans can only mean cuts to other schools – Ed Balls

Ed Balls, Labour’s Schools Secretary responding to comments from the Conservative leader of Kent County Council and Conservative Cabinet Member for schools in Hampshire said:

"These leading Conservative councillors with real experience of education have let the cat out of the bag and confirmed what we and educational experts have been saying all along.

"The only way David Cameron and Michael Gove's ‘free market’ schools plans can work is, as the councillors say, by making deep and immediate cuts to schools that children are already attending.

"And this is on top of the immediate cuts of over £1 billion the Conservatives are already planning to our schools - the biggest unprotected budget for the Tories, according to the IFS.

"David Cameron and Michael Gove now have two questions to answer. Where will the money for their new ‘free market’ schools come from if not by cutting the budgets of existing schools? And will they match Labour's pledge of rising per pupil funding of 2.1 per cent per year?

"Not only do parents face the threat of school buildings being cancelled and teachers being cut, now the Tory leader of Kent has confirmed that their school policy would mean even further cuts to existing schools."