Curbing rampant inflation is more important than protecting school budgets, the education secretary says – ahead of expected steep cuts in next week’s ‘budget’.
Gillian Keegan said the level of school funding would be “irrelevant” if the government failed to get a grip on soaring prices, arguing: ‘Everybody is worried about inflation.”
Education is already facing a £3.4bn real-terms cut in funding in the 2023-24 financial year – because inflation is more than 10 per cent, not the forecast 4 per cent when the budget was set.
