Key points
Jeremy Corbyn’s theme was education and the changes in the schools funding programme, which have drawn a storm of protest from headteachers and parents. He said the government was cutting the schools budget by 6.5% by 2020 and leaving thousands of schools across England facing additional cuts, while simultaneously cutting inheritance tax, corporation tax and the banking levy. May replied that she was committed to ensuring all children had the opportunity of a good education but, in a possible sign of a concession, stressed that the proposed funding formula was a consultation, after which the Department of Education would respond in due course.
Corbyn pressed on, asking whether she was advocating larger classes, shorter school days or fewer teachers. May pointed to protected school budgets, diversity in education choices and more teachers with degrees. She said she believed in choice for parents while Corbyn believed in a one-size-fits-all system. Corbyn quoted various Conservatives who had publicly criticised May’s focus on grammar schools and referred to a letter from a teacher named Eileen, who claimed teachers were purchasing pens, pencils, gluesticks and various necessities from their own pockets, such was the squeeze on budgets. May insisted the Conservatives had delivered record funding for schools and said she wanted a system where every child could progress on the basis of merit, not privilege.
She pointed out that at least two shadow cabinet members, referring to Diane Abbott and the shadow attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti, had sent their children into private education and that Corbyn had sent his son to a grammar school. May said this was typical Labour hypocrisy.
Corbyn said May and her government were “betraying a generation of young people by cutting funding for every child” and accused the prime minister of focusing only on her “grammar school vanity project”. May said it was not a vanity project to want every child to have a good school place. She then teased Corbyn about the video he released this week calling for unity in the Labour party and the wider movement, saying it demonstrated the difference between a party putting the country first and one putting only itself first.
In questions from Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in Westminster, May was again pressed on her refusal to grant Scotland a second independence referendum before a Brexit deal had been completed. Robertson asked whether it was right that the Commons, Lords, EU parliament and 27 EU member states would all have a choice on Brexit but the people of Scotland would not. May said the people of Scotland had a choice in 2014, as had the people of the UK in the Brexit referendum and that she was respecting both results while the SNP was respecting neither.
Snap verdict
Some of Corbyn’s better PMQs have been on education and May’s plans to extend grammar schools, and this was one of his best for a long time. He was probably at his most effective in the first half of the exchange, when he was focusing on school funding, not selection. He put the figures about cuts well, and, for the first time in ages, resorted to the “here’s a question from a voter” tactic (once his hallmark), which today worked effectively.
May was bland and unconvincing on the general funding point, although she was right to say that the school funding formula was an issue governments had dodged for too long. She seemed much more animated defending grammar schools, the domestic policy initiative to which she seems most personally committed, but Corbyn held his ground well, helped by being able to quote Tories opposed to this.
You could tell May was under pressure because she resorted to the personal, attacking Corbyn for a decision about this son’s education (which reportedly helped to break up his second marriage – he did not support his wife’s desire to send their son to a grammar school), but if you are going to go personal, you have to be ruthless to make it decisive, and May did not press her point, with the result that Corbyn was not thrown off his stride. So it was an effective performance by him, if not a decisive win.
Robertson focused on two well-rehearsed SNP complaints: May’s failure to reach an agreement with Scotland on Brexit, and her refusal to commit to offering Scotland an independence referendum. Both are relatively easy hits, although, in her second answer, May was able to come back with a particularly well honed soundbite about how she was honouring the results of the UK’s last two referendums, while the SNP was doing neither.
Memorable lines
“In the budget, the government found no more money for schools but did find some for her pet grammar schools project. What kind of priority is that?”
Corbyn presses May’s buttons on a weak point, her broadly unpopular grammar schools programme
“Typical Labour – taking the advantage themselves and pulling up the ladder behind them.”
May goes personal, attacking Corbyn and shadow cabinet members for putting their own children through private education
