Laura Trott: Labour lied, and nowhere is that clearer than in education where the consequences are coming soon

Laura Trott is the shadow Education Secretary and MP for Sevenoaks. 

At the budget, Labour confirmed what many of us had suspected for some time – the British public were sold a lie.

Throughout the last election campaign, Labour repeated endlessly the pledge that they wouldn’t raise taxes on working people. Rachel Reeves’ first budget began to expose the dishonesty in what they said. By increasing employer contributions on national insurance, she unveiled a litany of tax rises – and then assured us afterwards that she was “done” and wouldn’t be coming back for more.

But just last week, she came back for more by raising taxes across the board.

Your car, your home, your pension, your savings – they will even be coming for the air we breathe – Reeves wants to tax it all.

Far from their pre-election promises, this was the biggest grab from working people in living memory, all to bankroll ever-growing welfare spending.

What happened to “country before party”?

The Prime Minister and Chancellor have thrown working families under the bus to shore up their own political standing and placate the very backbenchers their advisers have reportedly described as “feral.”

The headline-grabbing tax raid is bad enough. But buried in the small print is a £6 billion black hole in the Department for Education budget. According to the OBR, this gap can only be closed by slashing special educational needs funding or cutting school budgets – the latter amounting to a 4.9 per cent drop in per-pupil funding. So unless there is another secret explanation – which the Government has somehow failed to tell us or the OBR – this is a devastating blow to schools that have been repeatedly failed by this Government.

Not content with taking a wrecking ball to the consensus built over the last three decades, between successive governments of all parties, which has driven improvements in our schools and improved standards for some of the most disadvantaged pupils. Improvements and a record that we should be proud of. Labour are now driving our schools into the ground and further into the red through a litany of broken promises.

They pledged to compensate schools fully for the Jobs Tax from the first budget, but many were left with shortfalls of up to 30 per cent. They promised 6,500 more teachers, yet there are currently 400 fewer than last year. None of this should be a surprise: every Labour government has attacked aspiration – not only through tax hikes but by hampering outstanding schools from prospering and helping the next generation. The Chancellor said she got into politics to help schools. The PM was out the next day flogging his hateful budget, miserably parroting that we must all do our bit as they are investing in schools.

I am not sure the PM has even read the budget and what it means for schools.

The Education Secretary now needs to be straight with teachers and parents. Either the schools budget takes the hit or provision for special needs support does. She is cutting one of them, so she should tell us which it is. Parents and schools are right to be worried, and we now need honesty from Phillipson. Accusing the OBR of being “misleading” won’t make a £6 billion hole disappear. If the Government is trying to bury a gap that size in the schools budget, it is the OBR’s job to call it out.

Blaming the OBR for the Government’s mistakes is ridiculous.

Hiding behind long-promised SEND reforms won’t make a £6 billion hole disappear either.

They have been “still to come” for months: first this autumn, then the winter, now next year. Meanwhile, it is glaringly obvious how much she’s been told to strip from her department, and any reforms will now have to be retrospectively twisted around cuts that are already baked in.

We know how that movie played out with welfare reforms.

It leaves the DfE with little room to manoeuvre other than cutting school budgets. Rachel Reeves’ effect has engulfed the DfE, and this isn’t something that can be kicked to the next spending review. The impact hits in 2028–29. A £6 billion black hole cannot be wished away. Pretending otherwise insults the intelligence of parents and teachers.

This Government’s words are empty. They are intent on destroying any semblance of aspiration, and shame on them for abandoning the very principles and reforms that have helped drive school standards up. Shame on them, too, for refusing to be straight with teachers and parents.

As ever, it will be the most disadvantaged pupils who suffer.

Parents and teachers deserve the truth, not more spin, and it is Conservatives in opposition who are making sure they get that truth.