The Shadow Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has told ITV News Tyne Tees she is sceptical that the full scale of the Raac concrete scandal is known, claiming there are "still gaps" in the list of schools affected.
Speaking during a visit to St Anne's Catholic Primary School in Gateshead, which is one of four in the country that has had to close its gates due to the crisis, she said Labour would have continued to upgrade school buildings had it stayed in power 13 years ago.
The government has said fewer than 1 per cent of all education settings have confirmed cases of Raac and that "the vast majority of schools remain unaffected".
She said: "We still, I don’t think, have got the exact list about all of the schools. There’s still gaps, but in the longer run, this is what happens after 13 years of not investing in our schools’ estate. When Labour was in government we had a plan to rebuild schools, to invest in our children and young people.
"We rebuilt and transformed schools the length and breadth of this country. We had a plan to do more and that’s what would have happened had we continued in government, but sadly, the Conservatives came in and they ripped that up and we’ve never had a proper national plan afterwards."
Currently we know there are 147 schools affected across the country, with 19 forced to delay the start of term and 24 having to go back to some form of remote learning.
ITV News understands St Anne's Catholic Primary School has had several building inspections which deemed it a "serious risk" when it came to Raac, but this week, following the summer, that risk assessment was increased to "critical".
