Michael Gove has long been a strong supporter of Kemi Badenoch, who worked for him as a junior ministerBridget Phillipson, the education secretary, was doing a media round this morning to highlight the news that primary schools in England can now bid for government money to set up nurseries.The Department for Education says in a news release:Primary schools can now apply for up to £150,000 of £15 million capital funding, with the first stage of the plan set to support up to 300 new or expanded nurseries across England.This comes as 321,462 additional children are now accessing 15 hours of government-funded early education per week, since the government delivered on the promises made to parents for the second phase of the childcare rollout last month.We’re also publishing more information about where there are gaps at a local level, so that providers have got a better sense of where the gaps are, so that they can look to create more capacity in those areas where we have the fewest places, and in some parts of the country it’s very stark. You know, for every child, you know there is, there is a real gap.According to the Department for Education’s latest projections, around 70,000 additional places and 35,000 early years educators will still be needed to deliver the expansion to 30 hours next September, with some of the most disadvantaged areas in need of the largest uplifts.Published for the first time, the projections show that around half of local areas need to increase their capacity by between 10% and 20% to meet demand for September. Some need an uplift of more than 20% – with areas that see traditionally lower household incomes including Northumberland, Plymouth and Rotherham all in this group.Soldiers in the army’s 4th Brigade will be held at “high readiness” in order to defend Nato’s eastern flank with Russia, under a new co-operation agreement Healey will sign with his Estonian counterpart …Some 1,000 British troops are already deployed in Estonia. If deployed, 4th Brigade troops – who are specialists in operating in Estonia’s Baltic terrain – could be sent there alongside helicopters and rocket launchers. Continue reading…
Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/oct/17/tory-leader-robert-jenrick-kemi-badenoch-labour-keir-starmer-uk-politics-latest-news
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2024-10-17 09:31:47
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Gove suggests Jenrick could hold Conservatives back because he looks like ‘Tory boy’ – UK politics live
