Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:51 pm on 27 June 2018.
Well, of course, Darren, I absolutely accept that there are funding pressures within the education system, because I have the unenviable task of having to make those tough choices, but I'm afraid this is what a Tory austerity agenda looks like. You cannot say on the one hand that you want austerity and on the other hand say you want further investment in our public services, when your colleagues in London are doing exactly the opposite. Presiding Officer, let me explain: over the term of this Assembly, we will invest £100 million to raise school standards. We will invest £2.4 billion in band B of our twenty-first century schools programme. We will invest, only this year, over £90 million in the pupil development grant, affecting the life chances of our most disadvantaged students. But I'm afraid I'm not going to be lectured by a Conservative politician whose mantra in another place is to cut public expenditure and not to invest.