Sebastian Payne

Tristram Hunt backs scrapping GCSEs and urges Labour to be more radical on education

Tristram Hunt’s education policy was assumed to be a victim of Ed Milband’s straitjacket. But now, the shadow education is free to speak his mind about where Labour went wrong and his actual thoughts on education policy. On the Today programme this morning, Hunt explained why he was sticking the boot into Miliband for the second time in 24 hours:

‘It’s right that every shadow cabinet member reflects on their area of policy. We suffered a crushing defeat and we need to know what went right and what went wrong. One of the frustrations of the election campaign is that many of the public’s priorities on education — smaller class sizes, better apprenticeships, better qualified teachers in the classroom — were Labour priorities.’

When it was put to Hunt that Labour’s education policy over the last few years was ‘mostly reactive’ and the party was ‘left behind’ by the Tories, he again pointed towards a lack of leadership:

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