KEIR Starmer failed his first big test as leader of the opposition today.
When asked two times by the Prime Minister if schools are safe and whether he encourages disadvantaged kids to return to their education, he point blank refused to answer.
Here was a moment for the Labour leader to provide a sense of unity around one of the biggest outrages of the coronavirus crisis: Children who most need education in schools missing out on six months of learning.
Study after study has shown the richer you are and the more privileged your school, the more likely you are to have been learning since lockdown began.
Those stark inequalities are going to become even greater.
The country’s most privileged fee-paying schools are preparing to open in September, come what may.
Some are even looking at launching their own track and trace programmes to get classes started.
A furious governor at one of the country’s top private schools told The Daily Telegraph today that schools “could have legally and safely opened this term”.
He said: “We have had enough. We will definitely open in September using our own hygiene measures, our own risk-based assessment of social distancing and our own test and trace system.”
And this governor encourages “all schools” to do the same.
I couldn’t agree more.
The education unions have acted shamefully in this country.
Other nations have opened up their schools safely and sensibly with the full support of teaching unions. But not here, where a political culture war is the only thing on the mind of the left.
It’s insanity that this country is beating coronavirus but our children – the least at risk of contracting the disease – are having their future success impacted the most heavily.
The repercussions from six months of lost education will go on for years.
We owe it to the most disadvantaged children to let them go back to school.
