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Education faces cuts of £2bn as Labour to wield axe
THE gloves came off over public spending cuts yesterday as Labour infuriated unions by lining up £2bn of education savings and the Tories faced a backlash over claims the Government was planning a "secret" tax rise.
Schools Secretary Ed Balls gave the first detailed indication of where the axe could fall if Labour wins the next election by outlining proposals to axe up to 3,000 senior managers in schools by running groups of comprehensives as "federations" with joint management teams. But he vowed to protect front-line staff.
The proposals from Mr Balls, who also warned teaching staff to expect tough pay settlements, prompted anger from unions and were branded "silly" and "absolute madness" by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.
As the debate over spending cuts intensified yesterday, Mr Balls accused Shadow Chancellor George Osborne of being "caught red-handed trying to pull the wool over the electorate's eyes" after the Tories claimed Labour was planning a "secret" tax rise.
Mr Osborne claimed figures in leaked Treasury papers revealed the Treasury was expecting a huge increase in tax revenue from 2011-12 – equivalent to a 3p income tax rise – which he claimed could not be put down simply to economic growth and the new 50p tax band.
But yesterday the Tories were forced to admit the figures were published in this year's Budget. Independent economists also dismissed their claims, although Mr Osborne insisted there was still a big question over how Labour calculated the increased tax revenues.
Mr Balls branded it a "ridiculous stunt" from the Tories and claimed David Cameron's spending plans had a gaping black hole in them.
He said: "There is nothing in those plans which says there's hidden tax rises at all.
"That would be against the law for the Treasury to publish those kind of budget projections and I think he's been trounced and exposed."
Foreign Secretary David Miliband joined a queue of Ministers in a concerted personal attack on Mr Osborne, saying: "It is the politics of the big lie and the big smear and it is very important that they are held to account."
But Mr Osborne, who used a newspaper article to make the fierce allegation that Mr Brown had been dishonest with voters, insisted revelations earlier in the week that exposed Government plans for spending cuts of more than nine per cent had "totally changed the landscape of politics".
Mr Balls became the first Labour Minister to produce a list of proposals of where savings could be made in an effort to reduce the gaping deficit produced by the Government's attempts to ease the recession.
His comments came just days after Gordon Brown finally admitted Labour would be forced to cut spending under pressure from the Tories and Liberal Democrats, who are both committed to significant cuts if they win the election, with unions this week warning all three parties are now engaged in a "race to the bottom".
With signs that the recession may now be over and fragile signs of recovery, public spending and how the public finances should be repaired is set to be the main point of political debate between now and the general election.
Mr Balls said he still hoped for real-terms increases in education spending but they would be much smaller than in the past.
He suggested deputy or assistant heads and administrators could work across federated schools, although each would have its own head teacher. The move could save 500m a year.
He insisted he would not force schools to merge and did not want increased class sizes.
But the proposals sparked fury from unions. General secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders John Dunford said: "The claim by the Secretary of State that the number of heads and senior school staff can be reduced without damaging teaching quality is manifestly false."
Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman, chairman of the schools select committee, said he was "very worried" about the impact of the proposed staff reductions. "I just want to be a bit careful about where we think we can cut a swathe through a part of the profession," he said.
The NASUWT, however, backed the targeting of a "proliferation" of heads and deputies who worked as administrators not teachers.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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