Conservative response to Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on education

Conservative response to Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on education

Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for Education, said:

“We have turned the economy around, cut the deficit by three-quarters, and have seen record levels of people in work. There’s more to do, but Corbyn’s plans for huge tax hikes and reckless borrowing would put us back to square one and leave working families worse off.

“We are investing in apprenticeships and skills training, helping more young people go to university and keeping the economy strong so there are good jobs for people. That’s the way to offer a better future – not Corbyn’s shambolic and reckless economic policies.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Corbyn has claimed he could pay for Labour’s spending commitments on education with higher corporation tax:

• Labour’s press release announcing a National Education Service said this would be funded ‘by reversing the Conservative Party’s cuts to corporation tax’ (Labour Press, 9 May 2017, link).

…but the experts say Labour’s sums just don’t add up:

• Paul Johnson, IFS: ‘It absolutely doesn’t add up. Partly there are just some errors in their numbers for some of the tax numbers’ (Paul Johnson, Today programme, 7 June 2017)

…and we’d all be worse off under Corbyn’s plans:

• Paul Johnson, IFS: ‘What [Labour’s] ways of raising tax have in common is that they appear to leave most voters unaffected. That is a false impression. In the end taxes on companies have to be paid by people through higher prices, lower wages or less valuable investments, including those held in the pensions of private sector workers’ (The Times, 23 June 2017, link).

Our record:

• More young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are getting into university than ever before. Young people from poorer backgrounds are now going to university at a record rate – up 43 per cent since 2009 (UCAS, End of Cycle Report 2016,link).

• We are ensuring university is affordable for all – graduates don’t pay anything towards tuition while they’re studying and only pay fees back when they can afford to. Graduates only begin to pay fees back when they earn £21,000 a year or more, and they’ll pay £290 less each year than under the old system.

• We are helping poorer students with university living costs. From 2016/17, maintenance loan support for students from low income families in England will rise to £8,200 outside London and £10,702 in London, replacing lower maintenance grants (BIS Press Release, 21 July 2015, link).

Today the Education Secretary has announced further government support for technical education:

• We will be investing £50 million in funding high quality work placements – a key component of every T Level – to help prepare young people for skilled work.

• We will invest £15 million to contribute to improvements in further education so we have the colleges and teachers we need to deliver the new T levels.

• We have developed plans to bolster the role of the current Further Education Commissioner - Richard Atkins - who will take on responsibility for Further Education Colleges and Sixth Form Colleges.

• The Department for Education will host a summit with businesses in the autumn to start developing the T level curriculum