Ed Balls challenges Michael Gove on yesterday's Newsnight to reveal how he will pay for his "free schools" & pupil premium; Gove responds with boorish insults.
Michael Gove has again failed to clarify how he will pay for the pupil premium or for the much hyped “free schools” – the centrepiece of Tory education policy. When questioned on last night’s Newsnight, to “explain very briefly in one sentence” what it is and where the money would come from, he answered:
“Well we want to make sure that some of the money which isn’t spent on schools at the moment in that 25 per cent that Ed [Balls] says isn’t ring fenced is spent on schools in order to try and help the very poorest. Well we’re at the moment looking at all those areas that Ed has identified as not central and not core to schools funding in order to try to make sure that they get school funding. Let me mention just one…”
Gove, however, failed to do so, prompting the schools secretary to explain the Tory funding gap:
“There is £5 billion and the pupil premium is £2.5 billion. You would have to cut 50% of all of that budget simply to pay for the pupil premium before he pays for its free schools. At least David Laws [Lib Dem education spokesman] has got the integrity to say he will pay for his pupil premium by abolishing child trust funds and tax credits. Michael can’t answer these questions because the reality is theer will be cuts to schools, cuts to teachers numbers, and large class sizes. He should face up to that reality.”
Watch it:
Gove’s prohibition on teaching for graduates with third class degrees or lower also came in for criticism, from teachers, former teachers and heads, with his decision to appoint Carol Vorderman as the Tories’ maths adviser coming in for the severest attack.
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10 Responses to “Gove fails to reveal how Tories would pay for pupil premium”
Peter Campbell
Gove fails to reveal how Tories would pay for pupil premium: http://cli.gs/3L0vs
Peter Campbell
Sorry, that should have been RT @leftfootfwd Gove fails to reveal how Tories would pay for pupil premium: http://cli.gs/3L0vs
Billy Blofeld
Well I watched the clip – and I couldn’t make head nor tail what Michael Gove was on about…….. but that was mainly because Ed Balls was just banging on and on and talking over everyone………
Balls looked and sounded like some sort of blustering bully – whilst Gove didn’t appear to know how to be able to get a word in edge ways.
I can confidently forecast that the interview made 0.00000% difference to the floating voter.
Senorviva
Disappointing piece all round. Paxman should have stopped Balls from talking over the top of Gove. If he genuinely believes Gove doesn’t have an answer why on earth not let him demonstrate it to the public. Instead I ended up getting irritated by Balls’ somewhat crass behaviour. Shame, really but then I struggle to find any political debate resembling anything more serious than a childrens’ squabbling match.
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