PM Rishi Sunak refuses to protect education budgets

Following Rishi Sunak's failure at Prime Minister's Questions to guarantee that school and college budgets will not be cut in next week's Autumn Statement, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said:

"The Conservatives are planning more public spending cuts to pay for their own economic incompetence. Now it is our children who will suffer.

"School trips are already being axed, teaching assistants are being laid off and urgent classroom repairs are being ignored as buildings crumble. Further cuts mean pupils with additional needs won't get the support they need and activities like performing arts clubs will be stolen away by this Conservative government.

"The PM's refusal to commit to protecting education budgets mean that schools and colleges will have no choice but to make further cuts to everything, but what happens to those already stripped back to the bare essentials?

"This Conservative Government is failing to fund education. Rather than investing in the next generation, Rishi Sunak seems hell-bent on balancing the books on their backs."

Download of clip from the House of Commons can be found here.