Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Students ‘failed by Tory lies’ as budgets slashed
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) during a rally in Manchester. Picture date: Tuesday February 28, 2023.

BRITAIN’S young people are being failed by Tory lies designed to protect private profit and billionaires while school budgets are decimated, teachers warned today.

Children are missing out on educational visits, musical instrument tuition and other life-changing opportunities as Gillian Keegan “shrugs her shoulders and claims the cupboards are bare,” the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference heard.

The Tory Education Secretary praised Chancellor Jeremy Hunt for finding an extra £2 billion for primaries, secondaries and colleges in November’s Autumn Statement, but Redbridge NEU member William Stockwell urged her to check her working-out.

He told his fellow delegates at the Harrogate Convention Centre: “It sounds like a lot of money but it doesn’t go very far as inflation, fuel and heating prices go through the roof.”

To laughter in the hall, Mr Stockwell parodied a teacher giving verbal feedback to students by suggesting Ms Keegan “could do better” as nine in 10 schools prepare for more real-terms funding cuts by next year. 

He said: “She claims there isn’t enough money left in the pot, but we know this is a lie. We know that energy companies have made £170bn during the [Covid-19] pandemic.

“We know that the four biggest banks will make a profit of £33bn this year alone and we know the number of billionaires has risen from 29 to 177 in the last decade — all while schools’ funding has been decimated.”

In a rousing speech, Tower Hamlets delegate Paul Robert McGarr said: “It’s the same old story. We know the money’s there, but who is it going to?”

A 10 per cent wealth tax on Britain’s richest could double the education budget at the stroke of a pen, he noted, to massive applause in the North Yorkshire spa town.

Denbighshire delegate Liz Mclean warned that there is no fat left to cut following a decade of austerity, adding: “Education is in a truly perilous state.”

Further school strikes in Wales have been avoided following a much-improved offer from devolved Labour ministers in Cardiff, but Ms Mclean said that budgets are still under massive pressure.

She urged members to hold both Westminster and Cardiff “accountable as they have a duty to properly invest in the education system as a matter of urgency.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Protesters during the Protect The Right To Strike march in L
BFAWU Conference 2024 / 12 June 2024
12 June 2024
Sarah Woolley addresses the BFAWU Conference
BFAWU Conference 2024 / 12 June 2024
12 June 2024
BFAWU Conference 2024 / 11 June 2024
11 June 2024
Similar stories
NEU delegate David Room speaks at the union’s conference i
NEU Conference 2025 / 15 April 2025
15 April 2025
NEU conference urges Labour to fix school funding crisis by getting rid of academy bosses earning over £500,000
(left to right) Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, P
NEU Conference 2025 / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
TEACHERS STAND TALL: Members of the NEU make a clear show of
Features / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
The NEU’s annual conference promises heated debate, with motions on international politics, curriculum reform and union amalgamation likely to provoke strong reactions and challenge the status quo, writes Education for Tomorrow editor ROBERT POOLE