Clause 1 - purpose and interpretation of chapter 1
Education Bill
11:45 am
Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest, Conservative)
I was officially asking the hon. Gentleman to give way because I should not have made my comment from a sedentary position. Now that he has given way, I should just like to point out that he and many Labour Members are obsessed with divisions in education, instead of paying attention to raising standards, which the Bill purports to be about. Grant-maintained schools raised standards enormously in certain places, but not in every area because not all schools became grant maintained. Grant-maintained schools worked exceptionally well, to the enormous benefit of hundreds of thousands of people.