The architect of Labour’s proposed apprenticeship reforms, Lord Blunkett, has distanced himself from the party’s pledge to use half of levy funding on other training, saying further “dialogue” is needed to get the flexibility right.
However, the party’s shadow education secretary has confirmed that major levy reform will be a manifesto pledge for the next election.
At September’s party conference following leader Keir Starmer’s keynote address, Labour announced plans to widen the levy so that it could be used more flexibly, saying more details would be published in a report by the former education secretary under Tony Blair, David Blunkett, now the party’s chair of the Council of Skills Advisers.
