Labour have admitted to failing white, working-class children in Britain. 

Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says it’s a “national disgrace” that so many pupils are being left behind, pointing to an alarming rise in school absence whilst all-important attainment figures go the other way. 

Having inherited a strong schools system from the Conservatives, Gordon Rayner is joined by former Tory education minister, Sir Nick Gibb, to try and understand what’s gone wrong. Gibb believes Labour “didn’t do the work in opposition to try and understand how to improve” and that they’ve been “listening to the teacher unions too closely”.

Plus, Tim and Cleo speak to Lawrence Newport - the co-founder of Looking for Growth, a campaign group that wants to kick-start our flailing economy. Newport, who made his start in political campaigning by getting XL bully dogs banned, says our politics is fundamentally broken, too slow and too ineffective - echoing one of his group’s backers, Dominic Cummings.

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White working-class pupils ‘written off’ by society, admits Phillipson

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