debates/debates2025-01-27a conversation_15
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-01-27)

UK Parliament Hansard data: debates/debates2025-01-27a conversation_15

Mike Tapp:If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities. \p Bridget Phillipson: Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As the years slip away, our duty to remember only strengthens. I have had the privilege in recent months of listening to the powerful and deeply moving testimony of Holocaust survivors in person, including Renee Salt and Mala Tribich. It is vital that the world hears their voices—hears what happened to them and their families, and what happened to 6 million Jewish men, women and children during the Holocaust. That is especially important giving the shocking rise in antisemitic abuse that we have seen since 7 October. The Government could not feel more strongly about this, which is why we have confirmed that the Holocaust will be a compulsory topic in all schools following the completion of our curriculum and assessment review. \p Mike Tapp: I recently launched an exciting new reading initiative across Dover and Deal called Tapp into Reading. We tour the schools and the children read theatrically from a VE Day text. This will end in May, at a theatre. Will the Education Secretary join the judging panel then? \p Bridget Phillipson: That brilliant initiative shows what a champion my hon. Friend is for his constituents, and I will consider his request seriously. I would certainly be happy to visit his constituency soon and to work with him—perhaps also on how his local schools might be able to join the UK-Ukraine school partnerships programme, which is based on the power of reading. \p Lindsay Hoyle: I call the shadow Secretary of State. \p Laura Trott: I associate myself with the right hon. Lady’s words on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Just today, another voice came out against the disastrous academy proposals in the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The Children’s Commissioner said in a scathing letter that ending the academy order to turn around failing schools will mean

“children spending longer in failing schools”.

The Secretary of State’s own Back Benchers have said that ending the academy order would be a huge mistake and would weaken standards. Instead of running all her policy past unions, which are more interested in their own power than in teachers’ pay, will the Education Secretary listen to the Children’s Commissioner, her own Back Benchers and headteachers up and down the country when— \p Lindsay Hoyle: Order. [Interruption.] These are topical questions. If the hon. Member wants to ask long questions, she should do so under a substantive question. It has got to be speedy—punchy questions and sharp answers. Members have to help me. \p Bridget Phillipson: It was a Labour Government who created the academies movement, and a Labour Government will ensure that they continue to flourish. The Conservative Government left a thousand failing schools that continue to let down more than 400,000 children year after year. We will intervene more rapidly and more effectively to turn that around. The Opposition have nothing to say on school standards; they are more interested in their own record than the best outcomes for children. \p Laura Trott: The Education Secretary does not understand that her Bill will make things worse, not better. The legislation is in total chaos. At the Dispatch Box she said that pay will not be capped by the legislation, yet we now know that it will be. The Government cannot even do a U-turn correctly. Last week the Prime Minister told the Leader of the Opposition to read the pay amendment, but five days later the Government have still not tabled it. Can the Secretary of State tell me when it is going to come? \p Bridget Phillipson: There was an awful lot in that but very little about how we deliver higher standards for our children, and that is what the Bill is all about. The only people in hock to vested interests are the Conservatives—more interested in defending school uniform racketeers and the private schools lobby than investing in our state schools.