Things can only get worse, as Musk-Trumpery continues to invade British politics. The outrageous smears and falsehoods – Elon Musk posted 200 times on X about “grooming gangs” in three days – included the claim that Keir Starmer is “hiding terrible things”.
The era when the Conservatives were able to pass themselves off as the “respectable” party is thoroughly gone, banished along with its final upholders – former MPs such as Dominic Grieve and David Gauke. Back then, the ketamine-addled ravings of a foreign mega-billionaire might have been politely sidestepped, not eagerly echoed by the Tory leader who has now accused the prime minister of refusing another inquiry into sexual abuse gangs because he “doesn’t want questions asked of Labour politicians who may be complicit”. Remember, Kemi Badenoch last year called herself a “huge fan” of Musk. The factcheck-free world of Meta, Musk, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage is now the language of British Conservatism.
Intoxicated by the thrill of conspiracy-think, Tories have forgotten that most voters still expect basic decency from politicians: despite having the lowest expectations of the political class, they can still be shocked. Labour is treating the incoming US regime with careful diplomacy, understandably, but the mantle of patriotism still falls on this government to defend the country’s political independence from the invasion of the alien anti-democrats embraced by Badenoch.
The Tories’ attempt to use the horrific sexual abuse of so many girls as a weapon to derail the children’s wellbeing and schools bill was perhaps a new low. The bill could save those many at-risk “ghost children” vanishing from schools – it will create a register of not attending. Teachers are powerless when parents, often threatened with non-attendance fines, withdraw children for improbable “home schooling”.
Plans for exactly such a register were drawn up under Labour last time, but David Cameron refused to let it pass as the 2010 election squeezed the time available: he never reinstated it. Instead, the right rubbished the child register as “nanny state” interference with family life. Charities, such as the Children’s Society and Family Action, called for it but were ignored.
Badenoch and Robert Jenrick demanding yet another inquiry was contemptible, and likely to be seen as such by most people. The BBC’s Nick Robinson skewered Jenrick by pointing out he had never, ever, spoken about this issue in the Commons. Starmer politely pointed out that in eight years, for periods of which she was children’s minister and minister for women and equalities, Badenoch spoke not a word in the house on it – nor had their government implemented any of the 20 recommendations from the Alexis Jay report, which took heart-rending evidence from brave survivors. Badenoch’s spokesperson admitted she had not met any survivors of sexual violence and grooming gangs.
Might the Conservatives’ sudden surge of newfound pity overflow into regret for the effects on children of austerity? These are the facts: the harshest benefit cuts left 30% of children poor; a third living in often squalid private rentals; 700,000 children in England in schools that need rebuilding; and the child death rate up by 8%. Schools are so bereft that the Institute for Fiscal Studies finds Labour’s real-terms increase in funding for pupils in England no longer covers rising costs. Badenoch’s party was certainly “complicit” in this children’s legacy.
The bill from the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, starts the repair work. Her breakfast clubs, which will be rolled out in English primary schools from April, have a demonstrable effect on progress. Cutting the cost of uniforms will help poor families who are deterred from choosing schools with too many costly items. The Tories claim she is dismantling academies: not so – though they misrepresent the evidence in claiming academies do better. They say academy teachers’ pay will fall – which Phillipson rebuts. If they were interested in facts on the ground, they could embarrass the government by standing up for sixth-form college teachers who are now on strike, unjustly left out of the pay rise for schools, harming the very cohort of children most affected by Covid.
Instead, the Tories accuse Phillipson of “a desire for uniformity, and spite”. Her bill gives councils back the power to ensure fair admissions, placing special needs children fairly and opening new schools where needed. (Free schools were often in overprovided areas.) She focuses on early years, where every pound spent yields the most benefits in later life Primaries with spare space are bidding now to open new nurseries.
The attacks on her have been extraordinary. The curriculum review under way by Prof Becky Francis is being slaughtered before she puts pen to paper, as the wildest submissions to her are reported as if they were government policy: replace “middle-class” museum and theatre visits with graffiti workshops, goes one fable. The remit of this review should ensure that arts and sports lost in the Michael Gove “Gradgrind” curriculum that alienates so many children from school altogether.
Note how women in the cabinet get done over in ways the men don’t. But Phillipson gets the worst pasting: abolishing the VAT subsidy for private schools causes mass “class war” hysteria in Tory ranks and newsrooms. Stories of parental hardship emerge devoid of these statistics: 6% of children go private and just 6% of those may move to state schools. As for closures, 3% of private schools close every year – 1,000 since 2000. Fees keep soaring – 75% up since 2000 – as they compete in attractive arts and sports facilities. Private schoolchildren get 90% more spent on them than state pupils. The £1.7bn saved will hire more teachers for the other 94%.
How unexpected that this bill should be the springboard for the Tories’ great leap into the wild realms of Musk-think.
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Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
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