Labour cannot commit to boosting FE funding levels in a future government until it has seen the “scale of the damage” to the economy, the party’s shadow education secretary has said.
Bridget Phillipson warned that “some very difficult choices” lie ahead, saying she would only make funding commitments she could deliver.
An uplift in FE funding had been a pillar of the party’s last general election manifesto in 2019 when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.
Phillipson told delegates at the Association of Colleges conference in Birmingham today that “colleges are central to the ambition Labour has in education”, and stressed that she recognised that college leaders were worried about cash, staff, energy prises and uncertainty of government support. But she did not make any funding pledges during her speech.
