Campaigning to protect FE funding is one of Lucy Powell’s top three priorities, the new Shadow Education Secretary told activists at her party’s conference.
Ms Powell appeared at a fringe event hosted by FE Week and its sister paper FE Week at the Grand Hotel in Brighton this evening.
Accompanied by newly-appointed Shadow Skills minister Gordon Marsden, Ms Powell signalled a new-found focus on FE by adding this key area of policy to her top three priorities.
She said: “We have said we would protect the whole education budget. The Tories have said they would just protect schools budgets, and in fact they’re not really doing that. It’s going to put massive pressure on early years and post-16.
“We’ve got a comprehensive spending review coming up, and we need to be pushing on these issues, especially in a world where we are now asking post-16 to take on many more pupils who are having to re-sit English and maths.”
.@LucyMPowell says FE is "absolutely" going to be a big part of Labour's campaign. "We absolutely need to take this on" #Lab15
— Freddie Whittaker (@FCDWhittaker) September 27, 2015
.@LucyMPowell warns sixth form colleges could be closed as part of the govt's area reviews. #Lab15
— Schools Week (@SchoolsWeek) September 27, 2015
I took part in a lobby of parliament on this issue this year. Shows pressure works.