Laura Trott MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education,
said: “Labour are in chaos over their broken manifesto pledge
to hire more teachers. “They promised that taxing
education would pay for new staff, yet that money is now being
diverted to house illegal immigrants. Their first milestone for
school readiness was hiring 6,500 new teachers, but instead there
are 400 fewer. “Under Labour, teacher numbers are
falling. This government is...Request free trial
MP, Shadow Secretary of State
for Education, said:
“Labour are in chaos over their broken manifesto pledge to hire
more teachers.
“They promised that taxing education would pay for new staff, yet
that money is now being diverted to house illegal immigrants.
Their first milestone for school readiness was hiring 6,500 new
teachers, but instead there are 400 fewer.
“Under Labour, teacher numbers are falling. This government is
defined by U-turns and broken promises. Parents, teachers, and
children deserve better.”
Notes to Editors:
One of Labour's flagship manifesto pledges was to
recruit 6,500 teachers across
England:
-
Labour pledged to recruit 6,500 new teachers in their
2024 General Election manifesto. In their 2024 General
Election manifesto, Labour pledged to ‘recruit 6,500 teachers
in key subjects to prepare children for life, work and the
future, paid for by ending tax breaks for private schools' (The
Labour Party, Change, 13 June 2024, link).
-
The Education Secretary reiterated the policy to
recruit 6,500 new teachers in a primary
school.PHILLIPSON: ‘We know that nothing
matters more to the quality of a child's education than the
teaching they get. And all of our children deserve to be taught
by the best teachers. That's why Labour will recruit six and a
half thousands new teachers'. She filmed this video with clips
from a primary school, reinforcing that primary school teachers
will be included in the recruitment of 6,500 additional
teachers (, Twitter, 11 June
2025, link).
-
Education Minister clarified that this
pledge was for teachers ‘across schools and colleges
over the course of this parliament'. Conservative MP
asked ‘which phases of
education count towards the 6,500 target of new expert
teachers', to which McKinnell said, ‘This government will work
with the sector to deliver its pledge to recruit 6,500
additional teachers across schools and colleges over the course
of this parliament to raise standards for children and young
people' (UK Parliament, 4 October 2024, UIN 5985,
link).
However, Labour are now fiddling the figures to
deceive the public into thinking they are well on their way to
meeting their target when the reality is teacher numbers are
falling on their watch:
-
On 6 June, the Department for Education said they are
‘over a third of the way' to recruiting their flagship target
of 6,500 teachers. The Department for Education shared
a graphic that said Labour have recruited 2,346 more teachers
in secondary and special schools compared to last year and the
yare ‘already over a third of the way to [their] Plan for
change target of recruiting 6,500 teachers' (Department for
Education,Twitter, 6 June 2025, link).
-
However, the Department for Education's own statistics
show that there are 400 fewer teachers because of a drop in
2,900 primary school teachers. Published on 5 June,
the Department for Education's own official statistics show
that there are 468,300 FTE teachers, a decrease of 400 since
last year – as a result of a decrease of 2,900 state-funded
nursery and primary school teachers, in addition to an increase
of 1,400 secondary and special teachers (Gov.UK, School
Workforce in England, 5 June 2025, link).
-
Education Secretary then said Labour are delivering on
their promise to recruit an additional 6,500 expert teachers
across just secondary schools, special schools, and
colleges ‘over the course of this Parliament'.
PHILLIPSON: ‘I am today providing an update on the
steps we are taking to drive high standards for every child and
deliver our promise to recruit an additional 6,500 expert
teachers across secondary and special schools, and our
colleges, over the course of this Parliament'
(Hansard, 22 May 2025, Vol.767 Col.47,link).
-
The Department for Education said that primary school
teachers are now being excluded in the target because of
falling birth rates. A spokesperson said, ‘The
country's birth rate is falling, meaning fewer children in
primary schools, so it would clearly be nonsensical for
primaries to be part of the pledge' (The Telegraph, 9
June 2025, link).
-
The National Foundation for Educational Research said
the Education Secretary's wording ‘seems to deliberately
exclude primary schools from the definition', adding that he
‘wouldn't be surprised if that is the case when they do publish
the definition'. The lead economist at the National
Foundation for Educational Research, Jack Worth, said ‘this is
because primary pupil numbers are falling slightly and expected
to fall further over the next few years' (TES, 5 June
2025, link).
This is in addition to the Department admitting it
still has no plan to fund Labour's pledge after 11 months in
office:
-
The Department for Education still has no idea how to
deliver Labour's non-ambitious pledge to recruit 6,500 extra
teachers ten months into a Labour Government, commenting it
will be ‘significantly challenging to deliver'. The
National Audit Office's recent report said, ‘DfE has yet to
formalise its delivery plans, which will need to align with
government funding and wider spending priorities…Ten months
after the pledge was announced, it currently assesses its
confidence in delivering the pledge as significantly
challenging given the fiscal context' (National Audit Office,
Teacher Workforce: Secondary and Further Education, 30
April 2025, link).
This is on top of Labour's disastrous Jobs Tax, which
is forcing schools to make thousands of teachers
redundant:
-
The Association of School and College Leaders said that
schools are up to 20 to 30 per cent short of the money they
needed to pay NICs, equating to a loss of over 6,900
teachers. ASCL said this shortfall could equate to
losing at least two teachers at an average-sized secondary
school, which would equate to a loss of 6,904 teachers for all
of England's 3,453 state-funded secondary schools – hundreds
more than the 6,500 extra teachers Labour promised (I
News, 26 March 2025, link).
And teacher vacancies being at their highest since
records began:
-
The National Foundation for Educational Research found
that teacher vacancies in England were at their highest since
records began. The National Foundation for
Educational Research reported, ‘Teacher unfilled vacancy
levels are at their highest rates since records began in 2010,
and June's Spending Review is the Government's last chance to
hit its target to recruit 6,500 new teachers' (NFER,
Press Release, 13 March 2025,link).
The Prime Minister repeatedly promised to spend any
money raised from taxing education on the state school system –
but he himself admits this is no longer the
case:
-
The Prime Minister repeatedly vowed that his Education
Tax would fund state schools—now he admits it's going to
‘affordable housing' for illegal migrants instead in the latest
of his bare-faced lies. tweeted, ‘In the budget last
year, my government made the tough but fair decision to apply
VAT to private schools. The Tories opposed it. Reform opposed
it. Today, because of that choice, we have announced the
largest investment in affordable housing in a generation'
(, Twitter, 11 June
2025, link).
|