PMQs: Rishi Sunak to face questions from Keir Starmer over RAAC schools concrete crisis

Rishi Sunak will face Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions for the first time in almost two months, as he comes under continued pressure over the schools concrete crisis.

Concerns over the safety of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) caused ministers to shut buildings in more than 100 schools in England just days before the term was due to start. Headteachers have described the timing as "shocking" and questions have been asked why the government only acted now after repeated warnings.

The Prime Minister has been caught up in the row after Jonathan Slater, a former permanent secretary to the Department for Education, and Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister, suggested that Sunak only approved rebuilding work for 50 schools per year as Chancellor, when the department asked for 200. The DfE said that just four schools had been rebuilt under the RAAC programme.

Sunak is likely to be grilled by the Starmer on the funding made available to tackle faulty classroom concrete when the two face off for the first time since Parliament returned from its summer break.

Labour has already signalled it will look to use an arcane parliamentary mechanism to discover what the Prime Minister knew about the crisis during his tenure in the Treasury. They want publication of submissions of evidence sent by the DfE to No 10 and the Treasury relating to advice on the construction trouble.

The government is under pressure after a series of blunders and revelations in relation to its handling of the crisis. Education Secretary Gillian Keegan doubled down on the combative rhetoric, by saying schools should "get off their backsides" and send in the RAAC questionnaires.

It comes after she was caught on microphone suggesting “everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing” as she tackled the crisis. She was also heard asking why no one had said "you know what you've done a f*****g good job". It has since emerged she was on holiday in Spain as the crisis unfolded.

Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said Keegan has “serious questions to answer” after it emerged the senior Tory’s husband has links to a company that was handed a £1 million IT contract from a fund earmarked for rebuilding schools.

As reported by the Daily Mirror, which broke the news about the contract, Michael Keegan states on his LinkedIn social media page that he is a non-executive director at technology firm Centerprise. The company was one of six suppliers awarded contracts earlier this year to replace server infrastructure, with the money coming from the DfE’s school rebuilding programme fund.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the Keegans. A DfE spokeswoman said: “Ministers had no involvement in the procurement process for these contracts, which were awarded in line with existing government commercial procedures.”

NationalWorld revealed that the government appears to have erroneously closed to schools, which led to "classes of children missing school for no good reason". Two schools in Kent which had already had safety work carried out around RAAC were told they would have to close buildings on Monday, however after lobbying from Kent County Council the DfE said they could reopen today.

While last week, we revealed that the DfE's own risk level of school buildings collapsing was upgraded to "critical - very likely" two years ago.