Gillian Keegan branded 'disgraceful' and 'arrogant' over schools concrete whinge
Brazen Tory Gillian Keegan was blasted tonight for claiming she had done a “f****** good job” over crumbling schools.
The out-of-touch Education Secretary was caught on camera insisting she deserved praise for her handling of the crisis, which has forced schools to shut amid fears their roofs could collapse. She blamed others who “have been sat on their a***s” for not helping to remove reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete from affected classrooms.
“Does anyone ever say, you know what, you’ve done a f***ing good job because everyone else has sat on their a***s and done nothing? No signs of that, no?” she was heard saying after an interview with ITV. Lib Dem education spokesman Munira Wilson said the “disgraceful comments add insult to injury for parents who’ve seen their children’s return to school ruined by this concrete crisis”.
It later emerged the Cabinet Minister, who wears a £10,000 Rolex watch, was on holiday in Spain as the concrete crisis unfolded last week. She jetted to Spain on August 25 to celebrate her father’s birthday, staying in a holiday home she owns in Nueva Andalucia, according to Bloomberg.
Gillian's on-camera gaffe (ITV)She returned on August 31 - two days after the Mirror revealed how dozens of school buildings were at risk of collapse as pupils prepared to return to lessons. Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “I think this whole situation is descending into farce - the Government has dropped the ball here, failed to prepare.
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“The Prime Minister bears responsibility for some of the key decisions along the way and instead of coming out today and saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do to fix the problem, which we have made a lot worse’, you’ve got members of the Cabinet coming out trying to blame other people, trying to blame people within their own teams and to say, essentially, ‘Put responsibility anywhere but on the Government’.”
Shadow Schools Minister Stephen Morgan stormed: “The Education Secretary has displayed staggering arrogance for saying she deserves a pat on the back for the chaos that is gripping our schools on their watch.” Red-faced Ms Keegan, 55, apologised for her “off the cuff” swearing and blamed the four-letter outburst on questions posed by her interviewer.
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“I would like to apologise for my choice language, that was unnecessary,” she said. Ms Keegan’s gaffe came as Rishi Sunak was accused of failing to cough up cash to fix the Raac issue. Jonathan Slater, who was permanent secretary at the Department for Education for four years until 2020, said the then Chancellor and now Prime Minister halved the number of schools in a government rebuilding programme - despite warnings they posed a risk to pupils and teachers.
Mr Slater told the BBC : “We weren’t just saying there’s a significant risk of fatality, we were saying there was a critical risk to life if this programme is not funded. It was frustrating. I thought we would get there in the end because of the quality of the data, the age of austerity was over, Boris Johnson had been appointed Prime Minister, he wanted to put more money into schools we were told.
“I actually did think we would be able this time to increase the funding for the rebuilding programme.” However, the number of schools in the rebuilding programme was halved, he said. “The spending review was completed a year after I left the department and I was absolutely amazed to see that the decision made by the Government was to halve the school rebuilding programme - down from 100 a year to 50 a year,” he told the BBC.
“The actual ask in the spending review 2021 was to double to 200 ... but the actual decision that the Chancellor took in 2021 was to halve the size of the programme.” Asked who the Chancellor was at the time, Mr Slater said: “Rishi Sunak.” However, the PM dismissed the claims, saying: “I think that is completely and utterly wrong.
“Actually, one of the first things I did as Chancellor, in my first spending review in 2020, was to announce a new 10-year school rebuilding programme for 500 schools. Now that equates to about 50 schools a year that will be refurbished or rebuilt. If you look at what we have been doing over the previous decade, that’s completely in line with what we have always done.”
Potentially hundreds of Raac surveys still need to be carried out, Ms Keegan admitted. “The vast majority of surveys that we do, they come back without Raac, but where we find it we will then treat everyone as critical and we will either prop them up or put temporary accommodation into place and then we will refurbish or rebuild them if they require that.”
Mr Sunak appeared to suggest up to 5% of schools could be affected - about 1,100. “I want to give people a sense of the scale of what we are grappling with here - there are around 22,000 schools in England and the important thing to know is that we expect that 95% of those schools won’t be impacted by this,” he said.
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His spokesman later tried to clear up the confusion, saying: “I think the Prime Minister was providing reassurance to parents, pupils and schools that the vast majority - we believe more than 95% - won’t be affected.” Speaking in the Commons, Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson fumed: “What an utter shambles.
“The defining image of 13 years of Conservative Government - children cowering under steel props that stop the ceiling falling in on their heads; 13 years into a Conservative Government and the public realm is literally crumbling around the next generation.”
The big questions answered
What is RAAC and why is it dangerous?
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete is a lightweight “bubbly” form of concrete widely used from the 1950s until the 1990s because it was cheaper. It’s also less durable with a lifespan of just 30 years - after which it may collapse with little or no notice.
How many schools have RAAC?
Potentially, hundreds. Until the Government publishes a full list - which it has promised to do this week - we don’t know. Currently, 156 schools are confirmed to have it but ministers are braced for the numbers to soar as more investigations take place. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan admitted yesterday(MON): “We expect the numbers to be in the hundreds, not thousands”, but “while we are still waiting on schools to return their surveys and confirm their specific situations we can’t be more definitive”.
Could this be more widespread than just schools?
Yes. Raac was used extensively in public sector buildings for decades because it was cheap and thought to be strong. Seven hospitals found to have the material are being rebuilt while courts, prisons and even some social housing could be affected.
Was the Government warned about this?
Repeatedly. The roof of a primary school in Kent collapsed in 2018. In 2021 and last year, the Office of Government Property issued formal warning notices about Raac, stressing the material was “now life-expired and liable to collapse”. A National Audit Office report earlier this year said Raac had been found in at least 65 schools in England.
Would forking our more cash have helped?
In 2020 the Department for Education recommended £5.3billion a year should be spent tackling the risk. However, in the six years since 2017 just £2.3bn has been spent. Jonathan Slater, who was permanent secretary at the Department for Education for four years until 2020, yesterday(MON) accused Rishi Sunak after failing to stump up enough funds while he was Chancellor.
“The spending review was completed a year after I left the department and I was absolutely amazed to see that the decision made by the Government was to halve the school rebuilding programme - down from 100 a year to 50 a year,” he told the BBC. “The actual ask in the spending review 2021 was to double to 200 ... but the actual decision that the Chancellor (who was then Mr Sunak) took in 2021 was to halve the size of the programme."
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