Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has been accused of hypocrisy after playing hockey on a private school’s AstroTurf hours before suggesting independent institutions didn’t “need” the pitches. The Telegraph has the story.
The Education Secretary made a viral social media post on Saturday mocking cost-cutting measures schools are making ahead of the Government’s VAT raid. She wrote that state school pupils “need careers advice more than private schools need AstroTurf pitches”.
However, Ms. Phillipson has been accused of hypocrisy for posting the comments after she spent the afternoon playing on the artificial grass pitch of a prominent private school, where fees are upwards of £25,000 per year.
The MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, who was voted player of the year by her teammates in 2023, is understood to have scored a goal during the match. The game took place at 12.15pm – around five hours before she posted the tweet, which was viewed 5.8m times, at 5.41pm.
The revelation comes after private school leaders pointed out they allowed their facilities such as their swimming pools to be used by the local community including nearby state-school students, free of charge. Teachers have warned this may have to be reviewed if Labour’s planned tax grab goes ahead.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet Minister, described Ms. Phillipson’s actions as “classic socialism”.
He added: “It is ‘do as I say not as I do’ while levelling down for everyone else.
“Stopping private schools from having AstroTurf pitches will not add a single careers adviser to a state school because pupils are already being taken out of private education so the Government will not raise the money it anticipates.”
Worth reading in full.
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