Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson put on united front at PMQs as Theresa May faces schools grilling
'I want a staircase for all, not a ladder for a few,' the Labour leader declared in the House of Commons.
Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson put on a united front as Theresa May faced tough questions about funding for schools in England and Wales at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) on 22 March.
The Labour leader and his deputy sat side-by-side on the front-benches just a day after releasing a joint unity statement amid fresh party in-fighting.
Watson had accused Momentum founder and Corbyn ally Jon Lansman of plotting to "destroy" Labour by affiliating with super-union and major party donor Unite, while Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell accused Watson of interfering with the union's ongoing leadership contest.
The row aside, Corbyn was able to grill May after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank said there are "significant winners and losers" to the government's schools funding formula reforms.
The prime minister and her government are betraying a generation of young people," the Labour leader said.
"By cutting the funding for every child, children will have fewer teachers, larger classes, fewer subjects to chose from and all the prime minister can do is focus on her grammar school vanity project that can only ever benefit a few children.
"Is the prime minister content that this generation, this generation in our schools today will see their schools decline, their subject choices diminished and their life chances held back by decision of her government today."
But May made the House of Commons bout personal by pointing out that Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and Shadow Attorney General Baroness Shami Chakrabarti sent their sons to fee-paying schools.
"He talks about the issue of the sort of system in schools we want," the prime minister said.
"Yes, we want diversity, we want different sort of schools, we have put money into new school places, but I say to the Right Honourable Gentleman, his shadow home secretary sent her child to private school, his shadow attorney general sent her child to a private school, he sent his child to a grammar school – he went to a grammar school himself. Typical Labour, take the advantage and pull up the ladder behind them."
Corbyn hit back by declaring that he wanted "a staircase for all, not a ladder for a few", with his anti-grammar schools stance.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.