Extract from PMQs: School funding - Nov 21

Q7. The Prime Minister said that school funding is up, and it is, but pupil numbers are up and costs are up, so the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that since 2010 there has been an 8% real-terms per pupil cut. How can the Prime Minister expect anybody to trust her on anything when she cannot get her numbers right? [907754]

I say to the hon. Lady, as I have said before in this Chamber, that overall per pupil funding is being protected in real terms by this Government. The core schools budget this year, at £42 billion, will be at its highest ever level. We are protecting through the pupil premium this year; we are giving £2.4 billion to support those who need it most. The core schools budget is rising by nearly £2.6 billion across this year and the next. But what we have also done, alongside putting extra money into schools, is introduce a fairer national funding formula, which ensures that we see a fairer distribution of that money across the country.