Listen: Ex-mandarin slams Sunak on schools

Oh dear. With parliament returning from recess today, No. 10 was hoping that this week would be a chance to put the summer blues behind them. But a former mandarin with a grievance has returned to put a spanner in the works. 

Amid a row over who is to blame in the ongoing schools farrago, Jonathan Slater – sacked over the Covid exam farce three years ago – has now pointed the finger of blame squarely at the government.

The former Permanent Secretary for the Department for Education (DfE) told Radio 4’s Today programme that ministers had prioritised new free schools over safety and blamed the 2021 spending review for cutting repair funding. The Chancellor at the time? Rishi Sunak.

Slater said that he had presented the Treasury evidence of a ‘critical risk to life’ from crumbling schools, but Sunak declined to properly fund the rebuilding work. According to the ex-mandarin, DfE made the case that between 300 to 400 schools a year needed to be rebuilt but the government opted for just 100 a year which Sunak then cut to 50.