What Labour will need to do to raise education standards

With a lead of over 20% in the opinion polls, it might be argued that Labour doesn’t have to worry too much about setting out detailed policies ahead of the next General Election. Indeed, doing so might actually damage their electoral prospects by giving their opponents something to attack or copy.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that Sir Keir Starmer’s big speech yesterday, setting out Labour’s five ‘missions’ for Britain, was somewhat skimpy on detail.

It is difficult to believe that many people would disagree with anything he said – growing the economy, making Britain a “clean energy superpower”, improving the NHS, reforming the justice system, and raising education standards.

The crucial question, of course, is how Labour intends to do these things. We’re told that there will be more detail later in the year. But in the meantime, let’s have a closer look at one of those missions – education.