Free school hit by scandal has questions to answer, Gove says

Shadow Education Minister Kevin Brennan questioned whether Mr Gove believes “fraud is acceptable” after the Education Secretary tried to dismiss Labour’s concerns over the flagship academy in Bradford.

The school faces a police inquiry amid allegations of false invoices and defrauding the taxpayer, while the Government stands accused of a cover-up after full details of the Department for Education’s internal report were not passed to police until it was leaked to the media last month.

It emerged yesterday the school has also been fined £4,000 over a contentious pupil exclusion.

In the Commons, Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe described the school as a “disaster” and said the allegations “look like criminality”.

“It is certainly the case that there are questions to be answered for those responsible for the Kings Science Academy,” Mr Gove said.

“But I would stress all academies and free schools are more rigorously audited and held accountable than local authority schools.”

Mr Gove accused Labour of “complacency” over the quality of local authority-run schools. “All they can do is talk cynically about those idealists trying to improve state education,” he said.

Labour responded furiously, with Mr Brennan accusing the Education Secretary of sitting on the “damning report” for five months.

“Why is there so much secrecy around these schools?” he asked. “Is it because, as he said earlier, (Mr Gove) seems to think fraud is acceptable as long as those responsible are innovators?”

But Mr Gove said the DfE had published its report and informed the Home Office about its concerns, insisting the coalition has been “much more transparent” than the last Labour government about “institutional failure”.