Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting ahead of Nicky Morgan’s speech, said:

“For all their talk of standards, the Tories’ record on education is poor. Nothing is more important in education than having excellent teachers in all our schools, but this Government has created chronic shortages, with the highest number now quitting the profession since records began and missed recruitment targets year on year.

"Rather than drive up standards, they have created a schools policy that has allowed the attainment gap between poorer children and their peers to widen, teacher shortages particularly in subjects that are key to our country’s competitiveness such as English and maths, and pushed post-16 education to a cliff edge, limiting opportunities for the next generation. Soaring class sizes also threaten standards with over 100,000 young children now being crammed into large classes, three times as many as in 2010. Their warm words mean nothing when the reality is David Cameron’s education policy is holding both our young people and Britain back.”