Agreeing with David Cameron was not on my bingo card, but politics in 2026 is a funny old game, and so here we are. The former prime minister has blasted the Labour government for taking ‘a spite-laden wrecking ball’ to school reforms that raised standards, improved education, and benefited children from the least well-off backgrounds. And he is right.
Labour’s infantile crusade against elitism extended to cutting the state-school Latin Excellence Programme
Since their very first days in office, Keir Starmer and his Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson have seemed intent on destroying Britain’s finest schools. The decision to add VAT to fees has led to the closure of more than 100 private schools, among them small institutions catering for children with special educational needs, top-performing prep schools and an 850-year-old Cathedral school.
Each closure means disruption for children and their families, and job losses for teachers and support workers. But Labour’s determination to wage class war and get one over on the toffs means this is of no regard. How else to explain the decision to introduce fees at short notice, and halfway through the academic year, leaving parents struggling to make alternative arrangements? Of course, this sop to militant teaching unions has little impact on the super-rich. It’s aspirational families, those who wanted more than the state could offer, but could only just afford it, who have had to move their children elsewhere.
Labour’s infantile crusade against elitism extended to cutting the state-school Latin Excellence Programme, which had provided funding for over 5,000 pupils to study this ancient language. Again, cuts were made mid-way through a school year, causing serious disruption. And again, the wealthy, in public schools, had their Latin lessons continue. It was bright and enthusiastic state-school kids who suffered.
Cameron is absolutely right to say that, when it comes to education, Labour has been engaged in ‘curbing aspiration, curtailing excellence, levelling down and denying so many children the opportunities they deserve’. His intervention comes in response to the government’s Schools Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament and returns to the House of Lords today. While much attention has focused on whether a social media ban will be added to the legislation, shocking proposals for education have been largely overlooked.
Central to the Schools Bill are proposals to erode the freedoms granted to Free Schools and Academies. These institutions were established by Tony Blair, under the last Labour government, but really took off from 2010 onwards, when Cameron was prime minister and Michael Gove was his education secretary.
The 750 Free Schools currently operating in England are independent of local education authorities. They have the power to adapt the national curriculum, determine the shape of the school day, introduce strict behaviour rules, and set their own policies for hiring staff. Many, including most famously Michaela Community School in north London, led by the indomitable Katharine Birbalsingh, have proved to be astonishingly successful, regularly topping school league tables despite working in socially deprived communities.
Yet rather than defending these schools and allowing more children to benefit from a great education, Labour has sought to appease the teaching unions that demand the sham equality of low standards for all. Despite being budgeted and ready to go, Labour cancelled the Free Schools that were green-lit by the previous government. This includes Eton Star Academy in Middlesbrough – a project close to Cameron’s heart, for being led by his alma mater, and close to my heart for being in my birthplace.
I am too old to have attended a Free School, but I did benefit from a previous Conservative education policy that gave parents the right to choose their child’s school. Aged 11, I was bused out of Middlesbrough and sent to a high-performing school in a neighbouring town. Under Labour’s Schools Bill, even this would be made more difficult. Phillipson has thrown her weight behind local authorities that want to block popular schools from growing and force children into nearby, under-performing institutions. My teenage self would hate me for saying it, but the ex-Tory leader is right when he says: ‘Labour’s message to aspirational parents and pupils in Middlesbrough? “Know your place.”’
For all its many faults, the 2010 coalition government, led by David Cameron, established a phonics programme that drove up reading standards in primary schools, alongside a more rigorous curriculum and challenging exams in secondary schools. All children benefited from these improvements, but children from the most deprived backgrounds undoubtedly gained the most. Yet the sixth-form socialists currently running the country sneer at elitism and view aspiration as a threat. Their Schools Bill promises to destroy education and thwart the prospects of working-class kids.
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