The career of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan looks precarious following the sudden disruption of the start of the school year.
After days of hesitation, the government confirmed last week that RAAC concrete – which can cause buildings to collapse – has been identified in 146 schools, of which at least 43 were unable to begin face-to-face education as normal.
Potentially thousands more schools, as well as other public buildings, may be affected.
Ms Keegan’s handling of the situation has not endeared her to her colleagues or the general public.
In spite of receiving warnings over months, if not years, she gave schools no notice before announcing – just days before children returned after the holidays – that they would have to shut facilities immediately.
As the controversy raged she was on holiday, unavailable for interview and, allegedly, unable to return from one of her homes in Spain because of the air traffic control breakdown.
She made things worse for the government when she got back to Westminster.
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On camera for a TV interview, she let off a four-letter strewn tirade, complaining: “Does anyone ever say you’ve done a f***ing good job, because everyone else has sat on their a*** and done nothing?”. Later she laughed when the footage was played back to her on Sky News.
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Gillian Keegan watches clip of herself swearing
Meanwhile, there were reports that she “blindsided” fellow ministers with her drastic announcement. Labour raised questions about a recent £34m revamp of the Department for Education headquarters and about £1m from the schools rebuilding fund paid to a company linked to her husband.
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Yet in comparison to previous hue and cry against other beleaguered ministers, Ms Keegan seems to be getting off lightly.
The Labour leadership has not yet demanded her sacking or resignation. This appears to be less of a comment on her performance than an expression of exasperation that her departure would not make much difference.
10 education secretaries in 13 years
There have been no less than, a shocking, 10 secretaries of state for education in the 13 years since the Conservatives took power in 2010. Would another one now make much difference to the state of schools?
Naming the 10 education secretaries is too difficult for a pub quiz or an A-level politics exam. In order they have been: Michael Gove, Nicky Morgan, Justine Greening, Damian Hinds, Gavin Williamson, Nadhim Zahawi, Michelle Donelan, James Cleverly, Kit Malthouse and Ms Keegan.
On average each minister has not stuck around long enough for a child to complete two years of primary or secondary school.
Given that politicians of all hues never tire of telling us that children are our the nation’s future, this turmoil betrays an extraordinarily neglectful attitude to ensuring a stable environment for children to acquire the life skills they need.
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In further evidence of carelessness in this policy area, there have also been 10 ministers responsible for higher education and universities since 2010. Jo, now Lord, Johnson fulfilled the role for two separate terms.
Much of the rapid turnover is down to the rolling chaos of four prime ministers in the past five years.
All were determined to appoint a team loyal to them, as each positioned themselves in the raging Tory ideological civil wars. Since Boris Johnson took over in 2019 there have been six education secretaries.
The Department for Education is one subject to systemic instability during these Tory governments.
Since David Cameron became prime minister there have been 12 culture secretaries – including Michelle Donelan and Ms Morgan who also had goes at education, and 11 lord chancellors in charge of the justice system – including Mr Gove.
Job seen as stepping stone
The roster in those posts regarded as more senior has stayed in single figures: is now the eight foreign secretaries (including former education secretary Mr Cleverly), seven defence secretaries (including Mr Williamson) and five home secretaries (Suella Braverman has been appointed twice).
This gives away which jobs ambitious politicians really want. A stint as education secretary is increasingly being regarded as merely a stepping stone to something better.
The revolving door at the Department for Education has been spinning faster and faster, leaving some secretaries of state barely time to locate the toilets.
Education has seldom been treated as a key department but there is no modern precedent for the recent turmoil. A minority of education secretaries on both sides have even displayed genuine interest and left a mark on the education system they are supposed to oversee.
As a member of the wartime coalition cabinet, the Conservative R A Butler enacted the blueprint for education reform in the UK from 1945 onward. From 1950, the last time before this when the Conservatives were in power for 13 years, only six people held the job.
Labour’s Harold Wilson needed just four in his first seven-year government and only three in the five years he shared with Jim Callaghan second time round. Anthony Crosland and Shirley Williams are remembered for their implementation of comprehensive schools to replace grammars and secondary moderns.
In between those two Labour governments, the Conservative prime minister Ted Heath’s sole education secretary was Margaret Thatcher, ultimately to his regret.
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Headteacher’s anger at clip of minister swearing
She too shut a lot of grammars and abolished free school milk for children. In government for 18 years, she and John Major only appointed seven.
Kenneth Baker was the most notable reforming secretary of state, introducing standard attainment tests in primary schools.
There were six in new Labour’s 13 years from 1997 to 2010. David Blunkett was the first blind cabinet minister. He brought in university tuition fees and took on the teaching unions in support of Mr Baker’s basic standards.
Estelle Morris deserves special mention for resigning voluntarily after just one year saying she didn’t feel up to it after failing to hit literacy and numeracy targets.
Education secretary for a mere 36 hours
What of the current Tory 10?
Ms Donelan is back in the cabinet as science secretary in spite of holding the all-time record for the shortest ever cabinet post. She was education secretary for a mere 36 hours – collateral damage in the Tory implosion last summer when Mr Johnson appointed a new cabinet after he had been forced to quit.
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What is the concrete crisis?
Also leaving no impression on schools beyond uncertainty in the Johnson-Truss-Sunak interregnum: Mr Cleverly who did two months as Mr Johnson’s education caretaker, Mr Malthouse who served Ms Truss, and Mr Zahawi, who was dropped in for 10 months after Mr Johnson sacked Mr Williamson, who had previously been sacked as defence secretary. Mr Johnson brought him back to education.
Mr Williamson’s handling of schools and exams during the pandemic resulted in several U-turns and was heavily criticised. Mr Hinds paid attention to Catholic education. His 18 months as education secretary were ended abruptly by Mr Johnson.
Ms Morgan and Ms Greening were each in the job for about two years. They were both made women and equalities minister at the same time.
This left the impression that their bosses regarded both portfolios dismissively as not really proper jobs, best given to women. Both fell foul of the pro-Brexit leadership. Ms Greening was purged from the party and now campaigns on social mobility. Ms Morgan survived and is in the House of Lords, where she chairs the committee on public commemoration of COVID.
Confronting ‘the left-wing blob’
Mr Gove was the first, the longest serving, and the most significant of these Tory education secretaries. UK school pupils are now higher up international tables for literacy and numeracy. Conservatives give Mr Gove credit for his insistence on conventional teaching methods.
He was the first elected politician to bring the radical campaigner Dominic Cummings, later called a “career psychopath” by David Cameron, into government as an aide.
Image: Levelling up Secretary Michael Gove was education secretary in David Cameron’s cabinet
Mr Gove and Mr Cummings promoted free schools and academies and confronted what they called “the left-wing blob”. The teaching unions voted no confidence in Mr Gove. In 2014, ahead of the approaching general election, Mr Cummings resigned amid controversy about his behaviour towards colleagues. Mr Gove was demoted – for the time being.
In one of his first acts as education secretary, Mr Gove cancelled the previous Labour government’s “Building for the Future” schools regeneration scheme.
The opposition are pointing to that as the source of failure to deal with RAAC concrete in school buildings. Ms Keegan is carrying burdens passed on to her by her nine Conservative predecessors. In her terms probably more of them “sat on their a***s” than did a “f***ing brilliant job”. That may be the best reason for Mr Sunak to keep her on as education secretary.
There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.
John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.
This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.
Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”
A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.
The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.
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This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.
The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.
While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.
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From March: How will the UK scale up defence?
A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.
The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.
“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”
Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.
The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.
Image: PM Sir Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey on a nuclear submarine earlier this year. Pic: Crown Copyright 2025
On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.
Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.
He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.
“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.
“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”