EMMA LEWELL-BUCK MP: Tory Britain Is crumbling through austerity, economic mismanagement and over-reliance on the private sector

Remedial work being carried out at a school which has been affected with sub standard Raac. Photo by Jacob King / PA Wire

Nothing could illustrate better the state that the Tories have left this country in.

Nothing either could illuminate more the contempt that Ministers like the Secretary of State hold our children and our public servants in when she displayed extraordinary arrogance by asking why no one had thanked her for doing such a good job – in front of live television cameras.

When our teachers went on strike to fight for better pay and conditions in our schools, the Government cried out that they were damaging children’s education by losing school days.

But the real danger was the Government they were trying to warn.

Over a decade of underfunding and negligence puts not only our children’s education at stake, but also their health.

The hypocrisy is staggering.

A former civil servant at the Department for Education has said there was a ‘critical risk to life’ when the current Prime Minister was chancellor – and nothing was done.

The amount spent on schools rebuilding while he was Chancellor fell by 45% – £340 million. In fact, on the exact same day which the Chancellor cut funding to rebuild schools, he cut taxes on champagne.

Politics is about choices. Time and again the Conservatives make the choice to allow our public services to crumble.

A report by the National Audit Office in June identified 572 schools where the problematic concrete was present.

Whether or not the Government hoped to bury it until the next election, they have proved they are unfit to oversee the condition of our schools with 700,000 pupils now learning in buildings that the National Audit Office believes need major works to make them safe.

Tory Britain is literally crumbling. A General Election cannot come soon enough so we can start to rebuild it.