Speeches by Phillipson.

“Antisemitism has no place on university campuses or in our society. Universities must take strong action to tackle antisemitism, including by enforcing disciplinary measures and improving transparency. More widely, we are taking action across the education system, investing £7 million across schools, colleges and unive…”

“Since entering Government, we have turned the tide on the teacher retention and recruitment crisis left behind by the Tories. We have achieved over 70% of our 6,500 additional teachers target. There are now over 4,600 more teachers in our secondary and special schools, as well as our colleges, compared with when Labour…”

“I suggest that the hon. Gentleman goes away and has a look at the pledge that we made in our manifesto, which is that we would recruit the teachers where we needed them most. I am afraid to say that the birth rate in this country is at an historic low. There are more than 80,000 fewer primary school children across our…”

“I know that my hon. Friend values the contribution of our teachers as much as I do. High-quality teaching is the single biggest factor in good educational outcomes for our children. We are improving pay and taking action on workload. I am also proud that we are doubling maternity pay—the first major change in maternity…”

“We have published the delivery plan that the hon. Lady referred to, so I suggest that she goes away and reads it. When she does so, she may also be interested to know that primary pupil numbers have fallen by more than 84,000 since last year, and that that is set to continue until at least 2030, because of the historic…”

“My hon. Friend is right to identify this issue. She has long argued in the House that we need both to manage declines in pupil numbers and to create more social and affordable housing for people including her constituents. There are a number of ways in which we are supporting schools at the moment, opening up space by …”

“I am happy to extend my congratulations to Mr Bhatti and the brilliant team at Town Farm primary school, and I hope that all the pupils had a wonderful visit to Parliament. This is an opportunity that we, as Members of Parliament, can encourage our schools to take up, because funding is available to make it happen, and…”

“I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for raising what is obviously a very important case in his constituency. I will ensure that I look into the concerns he has raised and, if it would help him to meet a Minister to discuss it further, I will ensure that that is arranged, too.”

“Many colleagues in the region with local schools served by the trust have raised similar concerns, and I would be more than happy to ensure that my hon. Friend and any other interested Members of Parliament can meet to discuss the issue further. It is clear that, across the system, there have been a number of failings …”

“I am grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee for raising this shocking case. Our thoughts must be with all those who loved and knew Preston, and it is right that the evil abusers who committed those sickening and shocking crimes are now behind bars. The House can be assured that we take this extremely seriously. …”

“I agree with where the hon. Lady started, which is that PE and sport—call it access to high-quality sports coaching, provision and resourcing in terms of capital investment in schools—are incredibly important. Alongside the work we are doing on school food to ensure that children get a great meal at lunch time in parti…”

“I have just described the action that we are taking. This is extremely serious, and it was an urgent priority for the incoming Government to update legislation to ensure that we do everything in our power to keep children safe. I have described the action that will follow, and I am glad that justice has been served. We…”

“The Prime Minister did give that commitment. This is also an area that I keep a keen interest in, and I assure you that I continue to discuss with colleagues in the Treasury the important case that you have made and that the sector has made, which is well understood. While I am not able to provide a further update in t…”

“As we set out in our manifesto, we will focus on shortage subjects, areas that face recruitment challenges and areas where those teachers are needed most. As we discussed earlier, we are sadly seeing significantly falling rolls in primary. It would therefore be illogical, given the significant drop—tens of thousands—in…”

“I will see what I can do.”

“That is because, sadly, we need fewer teachers in primary school, given the falling roll challenges that we see, but we have seen more teachers in the places we need them most. There is a strong story to tell on initial teacher training, running alongside the numbers in the profession. To give a few examples, in maths,…”

“What we said in the manifesto was: “Labour will recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers. We will get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges, and tackle retention issues.” Sadly, we do not face recruitment challenges in the same way in primary as we do elsewhere, bec…”

“The overall drop in pupil numbers is tens of thousands of children.”

“I am afraid I do not have the answer that was provided in front of me, but I will do my best to answer that question. We made a commitment to end tax breaks for private schools in our manifesto. That is something that we said ahead of time would happen, and that we have delivered. It will raise more than £1.8 billion a…”

“These are decisions that individual schools will need to consider. They are independent; they can make decisions about how they budget and how they run their institutions, but private schools have been closing long before VAT was announced. You referred to London, and we talked earlier about falling pupil numbers. That…”