Labour has stepped up its attacks on Michael Gove over continuing errors in information released about a cancelled £55 billion school building programme. The Education Secretary was a "discredited" figure after a list, amended three times already, still contained mistakes, Labour claimed. The incorrect information relates to his decision to axe the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF) which will hit hundreds of schools in England.
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In a chaotic Commons statement on Monday, MPs were eventually given the list of affected schools in their constituencies, including 715 that would have their building projects axed, but it contained 25 errors. The issue is rapidly becoming a political embarrassment for the Cabinet minister, who also apologised "unreservedly" to MPs last night over his handling of the situation. The mistakes have meant several schools which believed they would be able to go ahead with their building projects had their hopes dashed.
Shadow leader of the House Rosie Winterton demanded Mr Gove publish the criteria used to decide the fate of schools, amid claims from Labour MPs it was "arbitrary" and condemned children to "years of misery and chaos". She said: "The Monkseaton High School in Tynemouth, which was listed as being cancelled, was in fact opened last year and was visited by the one and only Member for Witney, where he launched the Conservative local election campaign. This is completely chaotic and suggests a hurried and unreliable process."
A Guardian source closely involved with a number of the cancelled BSF projects said: "This is the latest example of Michael Gove's inept handling of the BSF programme. Firstly, he allowed projects to progress to preferred bidder stage, resulting in the private sector incurring £100,000-plus of additional costs, only to subsequently cancel them. Now he has mishandled the seemingly simple of task of identifying which schools are impacted by the government's decision."
A Guardian source closely involved with a number of the cancelled BSF projects said: "This is the latest example of Michael Gove's inept handling of the BSF programme. Firstly, he allowed projects to progress to preferred bidder stage, resulting in the private sector incurring £100,000-plus of additional costs, only to subsequently cancel them. Now he has mishandled the seemingly simple of task of identifying which schools are impacted by the government's decision."
