Opposition Day debates from Labour are often rather boring, with a frontbencher getting very angry about energy bills (one of their favourite topics for opposition day debates), and three backbenchers pulling stern faces at the lonely minister whose job it is to reply. But tomorrow’s debate is being billed as a ‘box office’ encounter (which says a lot about the sort of thing people in Parliament get excited about) between the party’s new Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt and Michael Gove.
Up to this point, Labour attempts to attack Gove have been about as effective as trying to scratch a diamond with a pin. But Hunt has already launched a frenzied round of broadcasts on education, and is trying to undermine Gove on an issue where he believes public opinion is behind Labour: unqualified teachers. The party has just signed off the motion for tomorrow, which says:
‘That this House endorses the view that in state-funded schools, teachers should be qualified or working towards Qualified Teacher Status while they are teaching.’
Of course, this is designed more to smoke out the Liberal Democrats, who have now gone public on their desire for all teachers in state schools to have qualifications, or be working towards them.
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