‘Rude and dismissive’: Education Secretary Gillian Keegan faces backlash after remarks about A-level grades
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has been criticised for suggesting employers won’t ask pupils about their A-levels in a decade’s time.
Ms Keegan said students “shouldn’t be disappointed” if their results were not what they had hoped for as top grades fell from last year – although they remain above pre-pandemic levels.
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‘Students across UK treated fairly’
The cabinet minister told Sky News: “Somebody asked me ‘What will people ask you in 10 years’ time?’
“They won’t ask you anything about your A-level grades in 10 years’ time.
“They will ask you about other things you have done since then: what you have done in the workplace, what you did at university?
“And then, after a period of time, they don’t even ask you what you did at university.”
She added: “It is really all about what you do and what you can demonstrate and the skills that you learn in the workplace.”
Joy and anxiety as results in – A-level results live
Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson branded Ms Keegan’s comments “incredibly rude and dismissive” – and accused her of “talking down England’s young people”.
She said: “This is a nerve-wracking day for young people who’ve worked incredibly hard.
“The last thing that they need is a secretary of state offering comments like that.
“And it really does add insult to injury coming from a government that completely failed to put in place the kind of support that our young people needed coming out of the pandemic after all of the disruption they’d experienced.”
The cohort of students who are receiving their A-level results did not sit GCSE exams and were awarded teacher-assessed grades during the pandemic.
Education leaders have warned that this year’s group could face disappointment as they may have higher expectations after receiving record high GCSEs in 2021.
Ms Keegan attributed the fall to the grading system returning to what it was pre-COVID, saying it was important that it “holds its value” and is “well respected”.
But asked what she would say to those who might be disappointed with their grades, the cabinet minister told Sky News: “Well, they shouldn’t be disappointed – they have just done an amazing job.
“They should be congratulating themselves and I want to congratulate them because they’ve worked so hard.
“They have faced disruption. They have been the cohort that’s gone through the pandemic and also faced other disruption as well.”
Ms Keegan went on to say that A-level pupils will “still get the same access to university” as those in previous years.
“The whole grading system will be back to normal and so the universities will calibrate to that,” she said
“And in fact they already have done so in their offers to some degree – they have already taken that into account.
“So we have worked with the universities so they understand it, with the admissions officers. And also with businesses, so they understand it.
“Everybody knows that these are different conditions to the teacher-assessed grades and even last year, which was part way between the two systems, more similar to what they have done in Northern Ireland and Wales.”
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Keegan visited a London academy were students were getting their A-level results
Today’s results show A* and A grades were awarded to 27.2% of students, compared with 36.4% last year, 44.7% in 2021 and 38.5% in 2020.
However, the number is up by 1.8% compared to pre-pandemic levels, when 25.4% of A-level entries were awarded A or A* grades.
The overall pass rate – the proportion of entries graded A* to E – has fallen to 97.3% this year, which is lower than 2022 (98.4%) and the pre-pandemic year of 2019 (97.6%). In fact, the rate is at its lowest level since 2008 when it stood at 97.2%.
Ms Keegan later defended her comments and rejected the suggestion it was insensitive to students worried about their grades.
She told reporters at the City of London Academy Islington, in north London, that “it is true, it is just real”.
“It’s an important step to get to your next destination, but when you’re a couple of destinations further on there’ll be other things that they look at,” she said.
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Politics
Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
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Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
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The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
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