Nick Clegg’s speech today on education has certainly garnered him some headlines. But it has also ruffled feathers in Whitehall. A senior Department for Education source told me earlier:
The striking thing about the Deputy Prime Minister’s speech today is the emphasis that it places on the need for a role for local authorities. The Blairite education reformers, whose work Michael Gove has picked up on and accelerated, always envisaged academies as a way of freeing schools from local authority control.“Clegg doesn’t understand that the 2010 Act means that Academies are the default mode for new schools, whether Local Authorities like them or not. His speech doesn’t change Free School policy or Academy policy generally. It was stupid of Richard Reeves to turn what should have been rare good news for the Government into a splits story, and it won’t help reverse public perceptions of Clegg as dishonest.”
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate, free for a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.
UNLOCK ACCESS Try a month freeAlready a subscriber? Log in