Can the Tories save their education legacy?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Bridget Phillipson's schools bill is back in the Commons today. The scope of the legislation is twofold: firstly, looking at the welfare of children in schools and secondly at fundamentally changing the landscape of secondary education by doing away with academies (and with it the legacy of the previous Conservative government on education). The plan has been read by many – including former head of Ofsted Amanda Spielman, who joins today's podcast – as Labour pandering to the unions and perhaps even prioritising the adults (union members) over the children.

Amendments to the bill will be debated this afternoon, including a Tory amendment that would ban phones in schools, although it doesn't seem that Labour is in the mood to make any concessions. What is motivating Labour? What's the vision of change here?

James Heale speaks to Michael Gove and Amanda Spielman.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of Coffee House Shots is sponsored by Alliance Witten Investment Trust. From the OPEC
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0:13.1	doomed premiership. There has been no shortage of economic crises over the last 58 years.
0:19.0	And yet, throughout that time, every single year, without fail,
0:22.9	we've paid out an increased dividend to our shareholders. In fact, Alliance Witten's history
0:28.4	dates all the way back to 1888. And today, we manage around £5 billion in assets.
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0:39.3	learn more about Alliance Witten and find your comfort zone.
0:46.3	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Hill. I'm joined today by Michael Gove,
0:50.4	the editor of The Spectator, and Amanda Spielman, former head of Offsted. Now, Michael, first of all, the Children's Welfare Bill, or Education Bill, returns to Parliament this week.
0:59.1	Tell us where we stand at the beginning of this, and Labour doesn't seem to be looking like they're going to make many concessions, do they?
1:04.3	No, so the bill is a bill of two halves, as it were.
1:07.2	It's both a school's bill and a well-being bill. The second half, the well-being measures,
1:11.0	are broadly uncontentious. Some of them deal with children who are taken out of school and
1:15.9	homeschooled and making sure that there are appropriate safeguards in place. And there are some
1:20.0	other measures which are broadly welcomed. But the school's element is deeply contentious.
1:25.0	And that's because the government wanted to significantly alter the
1:30.5	landscape, particularly with respect to academies and particularly with respect to how underperforming
1:35.8	schools are tackled. And there are a range of provisions which the opposition and critics,
1:42.5	including myself, have taken exception to,
1:44.8	one of which restricts the growth of good schools,
1:47.3	another of which leaves it uncertain what will happen to underperforming schools,
	...

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