Orders of the Day — Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 6:18 pm on 22 January 1996.

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Photo of Dr Rhodes Boyson Dr Rhodes Boyson , Brent North 6:18, 22 January 1996

My right hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Mr. Baker) referred to some of the Education Acts that were passed in this and the previous three Parliaments. I was an Education Minister from 1979 to 1983 and Labour party policy was to oppose everything that we put through and then, five years later, to say that it agreed with us. That was true of parental choice of school, which was also opposed and voted against by the Liberals. They must remember that they voted against parental choice.

Similarly, the Liberals and Labour voted against the introduction of tests. It appears that they, too, have now been accepted. Labour policy is to follow five years behind Conservative policy. In another five years, we shall find Labour advocating vouchers—I will not say for three-year-olds, but for four-year-olds as we do now.