Willetts Puts the Boot Into Alan Johnson

Reports seem to indicate that David Willetts scored a bit of a hit against Alan Johnson at Education Questions. Admittedly, I didn't see it personally, but if this report from PA is true then well done to The Speaker! And that's not something I often say...

Education Secretary Alan Johnson today denied "taking his foot off the
accelerator" over expanding the city academy programme. Mr Johnson, a Labour
deputy leadership contender, was responding to Tory charges that he was "going
cool" on them. But he insisted the Government wanted to build 400 of the
independent publicly-funded schools, although that would take "many years" of a
Labour administration. There are presently 47. He also sought at Commons
question time to highlight Tory divisions on academic selection before being cut
off by Speaker Michael Martin. Academies are non-fee paying, non-selective state
schools which operate outside the control of local education authorities and
have private sponsors. Mr Johnson has reportedly said he wants to "limit" the
number to 400. In a speech this month shadow education secretary David Willetts
rejected the view - for years a strongly-held Tory belief - that academic
selection was the best way to raise school standards. And he claimed the Tories
would build more of Tony Blair's favoured city academies than will be opened
under a Gordon Brown government. Tory leader David Cameron has said dropping the commitment to create more selective schools was essential if the party wanted to be a "serious force for government and change". At question time today Mr
Willetts said: "Why is it that when the Prime Minister is leaving office, the
Secretary of State is taking his foot off the accelerator, going cool on academies when we on this side of the House strongly support academies and do not see why their should be any limit to the number of them?" Mr Johnson replied: "This is hardly taking our foot off the accelerator. There are 47 academies now. We have a manifesto commitment to 200 academies by 2010 and we have just announced we are going to go on to build 400 academies." He said given that the "specific intention" of the academies was that they were built predominantly in areas "where education has failed generations of children" and in areas of deprivation, the 400 number "fits that bill". Mr Johnson went on to raise the recent comments by Mr Willetts and Mr Cameron, before being cut off by Mr Martin.