Chancellor Rishi Sunak warns every day schools are shut is a ‘tragedy’ amid claims he has told MPs privately that keeping pupils at home is costing as much as the credit crunch
- Rishi Sunak believed to be among government hawks on need to reopen schools
- Claims Chancellor privately warning impact of closures on scale of credit crunch
- Ministers face backlash over admission schools might not reopen till September
Rishi Sunak today warned school closures are a ‘tragedy’ amid claims he has told MPs they are as damaging to the economy as the 2008 credit crunch.
The Chancellor is believed to be among the most hawkish in government on the need to reopen schools.
He has privately told colleagues that the impact of keeping millions of pupils at home is the same scale as the financial crisis, which required nearly £140billion in taxpayer bailouts, according to the Telegraph.
Treasury sources dismissed the report as ‘categorically not true’. Speaking on a visit to a John Lewis store this morning, Mr Sunak said: ‘I personally think every day our children are not at school is a tragedy.’
The claims emerged after figures showed the costs of the government’s furlough scheme rising again, with the UK on the brink of the worst recession in 300 years.
With concerns rising about the long-term impact, ministers are facing fury that millions of children might not be able to go back to school full-time in September – despite zoos and drive-in cinemas opening from Monday.
Fears are rising about the impact of the schools lockdown after figures showed the costs of the government’s furlough scheme rising again, with the UK on the brink of the worst recession in 300 years
Gary Murray, who has two daughters aged 15 and eight, said: ‘The question I feel a lot of parents want answering is; what is going to be different if they go back in September to what is different to them going back to school now?’. Pictured: Children at a French bilingual school in Fulham, London, use hoops for social distancing
Speaking on a visit to a John Lewis store this morning, Mr Sunak said: ‘I personally think every day our children are not at school is a tragedy.’
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson admitted yesterday that the ‘ambition’ of getting all primary age children back in class for a month before the summer break had been ditched just weeks after it was set.
And Government sources refused to confirm that all pupils at either primary or secondary schools will be able to go back full-time after the holidays, merely saying they hoped ‘more’ could return.
Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield accused ministers of ‘furloughing childhood’, while parents voiced anger that non-essential shops, McDonald’s and zoos are reopening before most schools.
Tory MPs are among those who have demanded a route map to get children back to school. Robert Halfon, chair of the education select committee, warned that 700,000 of the most vulnerable pupils were doing no work at home at all and many do not even have access to computers, predicting an ‘epidemic of educational poverty’ without more assistance.
Former education secretary Justine Greening said the government was failing to understand that lockdown cannot truly end until schools reopen
Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured in London last month) is believed to be among the most hawkish in government on the need to reopen schools
Meanwhile, there is pressure for a Nightingale hospitals-style operation to use community halls and churches as temporary classrooms.
Former education secretary Justine Greening said the government was failing to understand that lockdown cannot truly end until schools reopen.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I think many people will be very surprised that there isn’t yet a government plan in place to help our schools get back open and there’s also not a government plan in place to help children that have been most affected by the schools shutdown to be able to catch up.
‘And the big risk for Boris Johnson’s government now is that unless they bring forward a proper joined-up strategy, then it won’t be a government that delivers levelling up in Britain, it will end up being a government that levels down and nobody wants to see that.’
She added: ‘It will open up opportunity gaps that were already there before and make them even wider.’