Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
More than meets the eye with the New Schools Network
SOLOMON HUGHES probes the finances of a phoney ‘charity’ pushing the free schools and academies agenda
A teacher and students in a classroom

SUPPORTERS of the free schools and academy programmes pretend this handover of Department for Education cash and resources to a bunch of businessmen, conservative and religious ideologues is some kind of grassroots social movement driven by “charitable” impulses.

But look at the accounts one of the key “charities” involved, the New Schools Network, and it is obviously all a government-funded front pretending to be from the “grassroots.”

The New Schools Network was founded in 2009 by Tory activists to promote Conservative education policy. From 2011 on it started getting government grants from the Department for Education. The New Schools Network was paid to promote academies and free schools. 

Trainline terminated?

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
TORY HIGH SOCIETY:  Sir John Ritblat
Features / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025

It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES

Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he hosts a VJ Day commemorative reception in the garden of 10 Downing Street, London, August 14, 2025
Features / 5 September 2025
5 September 2025

Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of  Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

Defence Secretary John Healey (third left) and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu (second left) view a long-range air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missile, during a visit to MDBA in Hertfordshire, July 9, 2025
Features / 22 August 2025
22 August 2025

MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds
Features / 8 August 2025
8 August 2025

SOLOMON HUGHES asks whether Labour ‘engaging with decision-makers’ with scandalous records of fleecing the public is really in our interests

Similar stories
A train crosses over the Ribblehead Viaduct with the snow ca
Editorial: / 13 February 2025
13 February 2025
Taylor Swift performing on stage during her Eras Tour at the
Features / 7 February 2025
7 February 2025
They’re the problem it’s them: SOLOMON HUGHES on the freeloading flunkies of the Labour Party hoovering up VIP tickets to musical and sporting events
A South Western Railway train in a siding near Basingstoke R
Britain / 4 December 2024
4 December 2024