Afternoon summary
Labour has been urged to clarify its position on collective punishment in the context of Israel’s response to the 7 October Hamas massacre of Israeli citizens, in a letter to Keir Starmer signed by 39 academics. The Labour party has been approached for a response. (See 3.03pm.)
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has concluded his party conference with a speech announcing a council tax freeze for next year. In a wide-ranging address, he also said he had “no idea” what Keir Starmer stood for, urged the SNP to make the case for independence by explaining its benefits, and not by focusing on the process, and said what was happening in Gaza was collective punishment. See 4.48pm for a full summary.
The prime minister and the chair of the Conservative party have been accused of circulating false information about Labour’s immigration plans, with a charity warning this could mislead voters in the next general election.
Peter Bone has been stripped of the Conservative party whip after the MP was found to have bullied and harassed a member of staff, and exposed his bare genitals to their face.
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Schools minister Nick Gibb tells MPs he knew of £370m school funding blunder four weeks before it was made public
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, told MPs that the government knew about the £370m black hole in England’s schools budget at least four weeks before it was made public – but said it would be “irresponsible” to restore the promised funding.
Responding to a call by Labour to explain the accounting blunder that overstated how much schools would receive next year, Gibb said Department for Education’s officials had taken responsibility for the error, and added:
What would be irresponsible would be to increase funding for schools by 0.62% solely as a result of an error by officials.
After he was informed by officials in mid-September, Gibb told MPs that his instinct was to rectify the error “as quickly as possible”, with the announcement of the error only published four weeks later alongside the recalculated national funding formula.
In July Gibb had told parliament that mainstream school funding would rise by 2.7% a pupil between 2023-24 and 2024-25. But the revised DfE figures issued on 6 October put the rise at just 1.9% – around £50 less per pupil. An average secondary school will receive around £57,000 less than anticipated.
School leaders in England have complained that they had already been drawing up their budgets for the 2024-25 academic year, saying they will now have to start again in making calculations over hiring staff and spending on trips and activities.
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, said:
Since this house returned after the summer recess, ministers have been forced to come here twice. First to explain how his government left school buildings in such a parlous state that many are now at risk of collapse. And now to explain that the Conservatives are taking £370m out of schools budget allocations for next year. It is shambolic. It is chaotic, and our children deserve a lot better.
Gibb retorted that the total schools budget was unchanged, so that no money was being taken away.
Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, told Gibb:
The minister’s argument, in a nutshell, is that you didn’t have the money so you’ve not lost it. But the point is that local authorities received a notional funding allocation and were beginning to plan based on the figure that was given by the government.
To places like Stockport, Tameside and Manchester, these are not insubstantial figures that are going to be withdrawn from those areas. So can I politely say to the minister: his argument is incoherent, I’ll grade him D-minus, and his maths is appalling.
Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said:
The Department of Education has been plagued by a litany of failures for far too long. It’s had a devastating impact on children, their parents and on teachers. We had the mutant algorithm. We’ve had the Raac roofs, we’ve got an absolute crisis in our Send [special educational needs and disabilities] system, and now this bit of good old-fashioned incompetence.
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