RAAC school closures: Gillian Keegan says she's doing a 'f*****g good job' and Sunak says he's not to blame

The Education Secretary has said that the safety of school buildings are not the government's responsibility and that she's doing a "f*****g good job".

In an extraordinary interview with ITV, Gillian Keegan said it was up to local authorities and multi-academy trusts to ensure schools don't collapse, not the Department for Education.

Then, during a change in shot, Keegan said she had done a "f*****g good job" and that "everyone else has just sat on their a***".

In the footage released by ITV, the Education Secretary was caught saying: "Does anyone ever say you know what you've done a f*****g good job because everyone else has just sat on their a*** and done nothing, no signs of that no?"

In a follow-up interview with Sky News, Keegan apologised for her language and said it was an “off-the-cuff remark after the news interview had finished, or apparently after it finished”. She said it was “no-one in particular” that she was blaming for having “sat on their a*** and done nothing”.

It comes as thousands of pupils are facing disruption at the start of term this week, after an order to fully or partially close 104 schools because of concerns about collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). This type of concrete, which was used as a common building material from the 50s until the early 90s, is reportedly “prone to collapse”.

The government has still not published a list of all the schools that are deemed dangerous, however Keegan said that would happen this week.

Keegan later told Sky News she was frustrated with ITV's reporter, saying: "The interviewer was making out it was all my fault. That's what I was saying, do you ever go into these interviews when anyone says anything but 'you've just done a terrible job'.

"He was basically saying all these things, he mentioned 1994, he mentioned 2018, they were all you know."

Rishi Sunak said that 95% of state schools were safe, which means more than a thousand could potentially be unsafe. Downing Street then clarified that the total number was expected to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands and the vast majority of schools would not be affected.

The Prime Minister had earlier described suggestions that he had cut school rebuilding funding, while he was Chancellor, as "completely wrong".

Jonathan Slater, who was permanent secretary at the DfE from May 2016 to August 2020, said that while up to 400 schools a year need to be replaced, but the department only got funding for 100, which was "frustrating".

In an interview with the BBC, he claimed that in 2021 Rishi Sunak actually halved the funding - so only 50 schools a year would be rebuilt. This was during the midst of the Covid pandemic.

Slater said he was “absolutely amazed” that a decision was made after he left the department to halve the school rebuilding programme.

He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The actual ask in the Spending Review of 2021 was to double the 100 to 200 – that’s what we thought was going to be practical at first instance. I thought we’d get it, but the actual decision that the chancellor took in 2021 was to halve the size of the programme.”

Rishi Sunak said "this is completely and utterly wrong", before confirming he gave funding to 50 schools a year. He told broadcasters: "Actually one of the first things I did as Chancellor, in my first spending review in 2020, was to announce a new 10-year school re-building programme for 500 schools."

Labour analysis of National Audit Office figures found that spending on school rebuilding dropped by 41% while Sunak was Chancellor. It said the school rebuilding budget in 2019-20 was £765 million, but after Sunak became Chancellor this dropped to £560 million in 2020-21 and as little as £416 million in 2021-22.

Responding to Keegan's comments, Stephen Morgan, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, said: “This is a staggering admission that Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives have done nothing to address a problem that they have known about for years.

“The Education Secretary has displayed staggering arrogance for saying she deserves a pat on the back for the chaos that is gripping our schools on their watch. Families, school leaders and school staff deserve an immediate apology for these appalling comments.”

Unions and industry groups said they have been warning the government since 2018 over concerns around the safety of school buildings.

Cllr Kevin Bentley, senior vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “Leaving this announcement until near the end of the summer holidays, rather than at the beginning, has left schools and councils with very little time to make urgent rearrangements and minimise disruption to classroom learning.

“The LGA has been warning of the risk from RAAC in schools since 2018. The government should urgently establish a taskforce, including with the LGA and councils to ensure the safety of both pupils and staff in the long term.”

Thirteen national education associations wrote to every Conservative MP in October last year warning about funding, saying they were concerned about the 2,000 schools which contained RAAC. At the time, they warned that these roofs are prone to collapse.

And in February, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) along with seven unions wrote to the DfE urging it to disclose which school buildings are most at risk and have an urgent intervention

Last week, NationalWorld revealed that the Department for Education's own risk level of school buildings collapsing was upgraded to "critical - very likely" two years ago.