General Election 2024: Bridget Phillipson appointed education secretary
Friday, July 5, 2024
Bridget Phillipson has been named education secretary in Keir Starmer’s new government.
Bridget Phillipson has been named education secretary in Keir Starmer’s new government, as the country's new prime minister wasted no time in appointing his new cabinet.
Other appointments revealed so far, include Rachel Reeves as the first female chancellor, Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper as home secretary.
Phillipson was the first seat to declare last night for the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South, at around 11.15pm, just 75 minutes after the polls closed, with a majority of 7,169 votes.
She was first elected an MP to the constituency in the 2010 general election.
Phillipson had served as shadow education secretary since November 2021 in Starmer’s shadow cabinet. Previously she served as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, which she took on in 2020.
The new education secretary will be overseeing Labour’s manifesto pledges, which include a pledge to create 3,300 new school-based nurseries, utilising spare capacity in primary schools due to falling birth rates.
Labour has said it will provide 100,000 extra childcare places, focusing on ‘under-served’ areas, and to meet anticipated extra demand from the expansion of the funded hours, which Labour has committed to delivering.
Labour has also said it will open breakfast clubs in every primary school, and recruit 6,500 more teachers into the profession, a move which will be funded by VAT on private school fees.
Responding to the appointment, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said, 'For far too long, the early years has not been given the same respect or recognition as schools, colleges or universities, and has been largely viewed by policymakers as a vehicle to support parents to work, rather than a critical part of the education system.
'As such, we look forward to working with Ms Phillipson going forward to support the development of a comprehensive long-term strategy for the sector that ensures that early years providers are realistically funded, supported and, crucially, valued.'
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'Education starts with the learning and development that takes place in the first five years. We look forward to working with the new Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as our children’s early education and care must be a top priority.
'We want to see the new government work together with the sector in tackling challenges facing providers on funding, workforce, meeting children’s needs and regulation.'
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said, 'Since she became shadow education secretary in November 2021, the NEU has been impressed by Bridget’s commitment to improving the life chances of students, especially those from deprived backgrounds. Her commitment stands in stark contrast to the chaos from her political opponents, with six different Conservative education secretaries in less than three years.'
Who is Bridget Phillipson?
Born in Washington, Sunderland, Phillipson attended local schools and joined the Labour Party at the age of 15.
She read Modern History at Hertford College, Oxford, where she was also co-chair of the University Labour Club, and returned to the North East after she graduated.
Before becoming an MP, she managed a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
She is married with two young children.
Reforming childcare 'a priority'
Speaking at Nursery World’s business summit in March last year, Phillipson said she wanted to reach out to everyone in the sector, and that reform would come from schools, the maintained sector, and private and voluntary providers having ‘a shared purpose’.
Reforming childcare was seen as a 'priority' for Labour and 'a moral cause', she said.
One of the reasons Labour was so keen on breakfast clubs, she said, was because ‘breakfast clubs have been a huge success in Wales’.
She said she was proud Keir Starmer had put reforming childcare and education at the heart of Labour’s five missions for the next election.
Phillipson said she was keen to learn how childcare works in different countries, and had visited Estonia and Australia in autumn 2022. At the time, she said Labour was also looking at what is happening in Ireland, which has a new core funding model and a new pay and progression deal for staff.
Labour also launched an early years review last October at Labour’s party conference, which is being led by Sir David Bell.
The review – which is yet to report – was set to look at developing a plan to widen childcare eligibility, ways to increase the amount of primary school-based early years provision due to falling birth rates, how to remove restrictions on local authorities from opening nursery provision, and the childcare and early years workforce.
Last year, Phillipson also pledged to deliver a graduate-led early years workforce with a plan for more highly-trained staff to fight inequality and bring the sector onto an equal footing with schools.
